Date: Fri 23-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

council-merit-teacher-raises

Full Text:

Council Panel Favors Merit Raises For Teachers

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The Legislative Council's committee on education voted unanimously Wednesday

night to recommend that all future teacher raises have some

"performance-based" component to them.

Today's practice of across-the-board raises simply rewards mediocrity and does

not work as a motivating force, members said. Members of the committee are Joe

Borst, chair, Karen Blawie, Lisa Schwartz and Brian White.

The committee's vote is nothing more than a message, which it hopes will be

heard by the town's Board of Education and school administrators. The council

has no say on the school board's individual budget items.

The education committee's vote came in reaction to the recent pay raises given

by the Board of Education. The new three-year contract will increase the

salaries of the 325 members of the Newtown teachers' union. The package will

increase salaries an average of 3.1 percent and takes effect July 1. The new

contract is aimed mostly at those medium-ranged teachers with between five and

ten years experience. This is an area where salaries are low compared to other

area school systems.

Board of Education Chairman Amy Dent said her board would take the council's

recommendation into consideration, but could not make any guarantees that it

would become school board policy.

School officials say the "performance-based component" may sound good on paper

but has some major drawbacks.

Imagine, they said, how parents would feel if their child was not placed in

the class taught by a teacher who had received a raise. All teacher salaries

are public information.

The school board does have the ability to hold back pay increases, Mrs Dent

said.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, a former school board chair, said he is in

favor of a merit system, but it is simply too difficult to do it in a public

school system.

He said most teacher raises are cost-of-living increases only, and merit-based

salaries could actually increase expenses to the taxpayer.