Lincoln schools retain bonus plan with $500K grant
Posted on Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Lincoln School District received a $ 500, 000 grant from the Rewarding Excellence for Academic Program, which will help fund for a year its merit-based bonus pay plan for teachers.
Superintendent Frank Holman announced the grant award at the district's monthly meeting Thursday evening.
"We're one of three districts in the state that got a REAP grant," he said.
The district has used the Teacher Advancement Program for five years but the original grant that funded the program in 2003 has expired. The current program emphasizes teachers evaluating each other, working in cluster groups and experienced educators mentoring new teachers as a means to improve instruction.
The program has often been credited by board members with helping the district improve its academics and test score results in recent years. School officials plan to maintain those practices using the new grant.
"We had progress across the district," Holman said, referring to the 2008 Benchmark tests. "We had dramatic improvements in some of the grades, especially our 8 th grade literacy and math scores."
The board also hired Clay Hendrix, a high school science teacher, as director for the new in-house alternative learning program in the upcoming school year.
Earlier this year, the district opted out of participating in an alternative learning program administered by the Boston Mountain Education Center in Fayetteville. The program was developed by the Boston Mountain Educational Cooperative as an alternative program to which Washington County's small schools could send their students.
Holman cited concerns over the long bus ride to Fayetteville as one of the reasons to cease participating.
The new program headed by Hendrix will likely be on the high school campus, Holman said.
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