Transition Team Identifies Schools And Jobs Eligible For Bonuses Under ProComp
Denver Public Schools has announced 28 schools and five job categories will receive bonuses under the Market Incentives component of ProComp, the district's new Professional Compensation System for Teachers.
The bonuses are designed to attract and retain highly-qualified teachers to work in the district's most challenging situations.
"The Market Incentives Work Group has done a phenomenal job in thinking through all the implications of the criteria they developed for hard-to-serve schools and hard-to-staff positions," said Connie White, co-chair of ProComp's Transition Team and a literacy coach at Sabin Elementary School. "The Transition Team has committed to review these criteria each year to make sure they're working as we need, and change them if they're not working."
Teachers and specialists must opt into ProComp before they can receive any bonuses offered under the new system. Those who do join and work at one of the 14 elementary schools, four middle schools, four high schools or six alternative schools identified as hard to serve will earn an additional $989.
Hard-To-Serve Schools
The schools identified as hard to serve for 2005-2006 include:
Elementary: Castro, Cheltenham, Del Pueblo, Fairmount, Fairview, Garden Place, Gilpin, Greenlee/Metro Lab, Harrington, Mitchell, Remington, Valdez, Whiteman and Wyman
Middle Schools: Baker, Hill, Lake and Randolph (If the Board of Education decides on or before its April 7 meeting to close Baker Middle School, Baker will be removed from the list and replaced by Merrill Middle School.)
High Schools: Abraham Lincoln, Arts and Cultural, Leadership Academy, and North.
Alternative Schools: Contemporary Learning Academy, Emerson Street School, Emily Griffith Second Chance High School, Florence Crittenton, Gilliam Center and PREP Assessment Center.
The criteria used to determine hard-to-serve schools included five factors:
- Percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch
- Percentage of students receiving Medicare
- Percentage of students enrolled in special education center programs
- Percentage of students identified as second language learners
- City and County of Denver data associating students with their home neighborhood crime demographic information
Hard-To-Staff Positions
Five job categories were designated as hard to staff: English language acquisition (ELA)-Spanish, middle school math, special education center assignments, speech pathologists and psychologists.
The criteria used to identify these positions included four factors:
- National and regional data on the supply of licensed professional produced by degree granting institutions
- DPS data on the ratio of highly qualified teachers to total teachers in specific assignment areas and to the number of qualified teachers in the overall DPS work force
- DPS data on the ratio of teachers with less than one year of experience to total teachers in a specific assignment area
- DPS data on vacancy rates among special education and student service providers
Those teachers who fill a position in one of the five job categories - or who currently hold such a job - are eligible to earn an additional $989 if they opt into ProComp.
"We expect that jobs eligible for market incentives will change from year to year, based on national and local shortages and demand for certain type of skills," said Robin Kane, Executive Director of Human Resources. "We'll review the criteria next year, and if we discover that one or more factors are not working for any reason, we'll revise our approach."
Before any ProComp element can be implemented on a district-wide basis, Denver voters must approve a mill levy increase that would give the district approximately $25 million annually to fund the new compensation system. If the mill levy passes, bonuses for working in hard-to-serve schools or hard-to-staff positions will be paid in January 2006, retroactive to September 2005, and monthly thereafter.
For more information, contact the DPS Communications Office at 720-423-3414 or visit denverprocomp.org.