Teachers group: Program could be used to avoid state pay laws

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A new program that chose 10 Columbia school teachers to share their teaching methods with colleagues is being criticized by some as a possible plan to circumvent state law on teacher pay.

The new professional development program is scheduled to be unveiled tonight at a Columbia Board of Education meeting. Details, including the teachers who have been chosen, have not been released.

Supporters say the designated teachers will open their classrooms on certain days of the week and be observed by colleagues seeking to learn effective teaching methods. The 10 teachers will receive a stipend for being selected.

"We have many teachers in Columbia Public Schools who are using best practices every day," Assistant Superintendent Cheryl Cozette said. "If we can provide opportunities for people to work together in an effort to replicate those best practices, then we will definitely enhance the instruction in classrooms."

But the leader of Columbia's Missouri National Education Association chapter declined to participate, saying she sees the program as a way of offering merit pay, which the association opposes.

Laurie Spate-Smith, an English teacher at Jefferson Junior High, met with Superintendent Phyllis Chase after declining to participate in the program.

"Nothing she said could convince me that this was not merit pay," Spate-Smith said.

Chase has put merit pay on the agenda of the school board's annual retreat this summer. But Cozette said the program is not related to those preliminary discussions.

Spate-Smith said the selection criteria included such things as experience with adult learners, multiple modes of teaching and culturally diverse classrooms. She said Chase declined to show the teachers group the data used to measure those criteria.

The Missouri School Boards Association has said state law does not allow performance-based bonuses for teachers. Some school districts have worked around those laws by making teachers eligible for extended contracts or professional duties that offer extra compensation.

Cozette said she did not know how much teachers chosen for the program would receive, but teachers familiar with the plans told the Columbia Daily Tribune that it's $3,000. In contrast, base pay for teachers increased by $600 this year, after a 2 percent raise and two added contract days. Salary-schedule and career-ladder increases brought the teacher's average raise to 4 percent.

Some teachers say the district hasn't been open about the criteria used to select the teachers or the stipends.

"No one knows how these magic few are chosen," said Lori Kilfoil, a national board-certified teacher and head of the math department at Jefferson Junior High. "That makes it a very uneasy atmosphere."

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Information from: Columbia Daily Tribune, http://www.columbiatribune.com