Teacher raise plan put in place

Compensation plans for Maricopa Unified School District elementary school teachers were laid out and approved at Wednesday’s board of education meeting.

Santa Rosa, Pima Butte, Maricopa and Santa Cruz Elementary each presented a compensation plan that would pay out based upon the completion of goals set for the coming year. While each school had slight differences, all plans were based on improving standardized test performance from the preceding year.

Pima Butte representatives said they based their goals on The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessments and teacher observations. The information would be used to compare last year’s teaching to this year’s teaching, not focus on any particular group of students.

MUSD Superintendent Dr. John Flores added that, currently, there is no way to track the same group of students as Activities Integrating Mathematics and Science (AIMS) does not flow from grade to grade. “There’s no surrender point where they can actually asses the growth …,” he added.

Because of this, schools will meet these goals by identifying problem areas for students and improving upon those areas for that grade level in the coming year.

Maricopa Elementary introduced a parent satisfaction survey, which will also factor in to the compensation plan. Principal Bonnie Gibson said that while feedback may not all be positive, they feel its use will help facilitate communication between parents, teachers and the board.

Gibson also said she plans to continue to improve the relationship with Maricopa Elementary students who are members of the Ak-Chin community, as MES has the highest concentration of Ak-Chin community members in kindergarten through 5th grades.

To this effect, Flores added that a preschool component with the Ak-Chin community is due to be launched, in order to ensure students come to school with the skills needed to succeed.

The professional investment portion of compensation will remain the same at all schools.

The board also appointed Tim White as temporary board president in the absence of the current board president and clerk, and Tracy Davis as Legislative Delegate.