Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Mayor has bonus for high schools

St. Petersburg area high school principals would receive $10,000 bonus for improvement on FCAT.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published October 13, 2006

St. Petersburg mayor Rick Baker, whose efforts to improve city schools have brought him national attention, announced a new plan Friday that could put thousands of extra dollars in the pockets of top performing school administrators.

Under Baker’s program, high school principals at some St. Petersburg schools will receive a $10,000 bonus for each letter grade their school improves on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Principals at schools that maintain an A also would get $10,000. Assistant principals could collect up to $2,500 at the discretion of the principal and the superintendent.

If a school jumps from a D to an A, a principal would receive $30,000, and an assistant principal would receive $7,500.

“This is huge for us,’’ said Pinellas superintendent Clayton Wilcox. “I just think this is a great thing for our school system.”

Money for the performance bonuses will come from an anonymous donor, Baker said.

Citing quality education as “the key to our city’s future,” Baker said businesses thinking of relocating to St. Petersburg inquire about the quality of the city’s schools. Prospective home buyers ask the same question, he said.

But while elementary and middle schools have improved their scores on the FCAT, several of the city’s high schools continue to struggle. Boca Ciega High has received D’s for each of the last four years. Lakewood High has received D’s for the past two years.

Under Baker’s plan, five of the seven St. Petersburg-area high schools are eligible for the bonus. St. Petersburg Collegiate High, which has earned an A two years in a row, does not qualify because it has fewer than the required 1,500 students. And because more than half of the students at Dixie Hollins High live outside the city, the school, which has received a D for the past three years, is not eligible for the bonus.

But Boca Ciega in Gulfport does qualify because more than 50 percent of its students live in St. Petersburg.

“It’s so unique,” Boca Ciega principal Paula Nelson said of the program. “This is his vision and his commitment to education, and we’re just honored to have that. It gives credibility to what we’re doing and the support we need.”

Tracey Keim, an English teacher at St. Petersburg High, said she thinks the mayor’s gesture would be welcomed if the money is shared with the rest of the staff. But if it’s not shared, some people could feel less valued, she said.

“You can’t have a good school without a good principal,’’ Keim said. “But you need the teachers, too. They go hand-in-hand.’’
Wilcox thinks monetary incentives can provide the extra impetus educators need to work harder.

“I absolutely think that the administrative team that I have in place is working very hard, but I think knowing that there is some type of performance incentive available might be the extra incentive that they need,’’ he said. “I just think that it might provide that motivation that someone is looking for.’’

The fact that only a section of the school district is eligible for Baker’s incentive does not bother Wilcox.

“I think it probably says to some other civic leaders that we all have an interest in education and we all have an interest in good schools, and perhaps it’s a signal of the type of partnerships that can exist for our kids and for our schools,’’ he said.

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at (727) 892-2283 or wmoore@sptimes.com. Times staff writer Donna Winchester contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 15, 2006, 10:45:41]