APS to get $1.2M for exemplary teachers

Nearly 200 APS teachers listed for bonuses; 22 of them will receive $10K

Albuquerque Public Schools is set to get $1.2 million from the state for highly rated teacher bonuses.

At a special Board of Education meeting this week, the board unanimously approved including state grant funds into APS’ budget to fund the Excellence in Teaching Awards, money for teachers ranked exemplary under the state evaluation system.

This year’s state budget allowed for $10,000 bonuses for exemplary math and science teachers, and $5,000 for other exemplary teachers in the 201718 school year.

APS will award bonuses to 197 teachers — 22 of whom will get the $10,000 bonuses, according to APS documents.

The teachers had to be rated exemplary under the state teacher evaluation system and still be teaching in New Mexico to receive the money.

APS will pay for the bonuses initially and then be reimbursed by the state Public Education Department. Payment will be made in separate checks and direct deposited into teachers’ accounts in early December, according to APS.

The $1.2 million from the PED includes APS’ share of the Social Security and Medicare tax.

According to PED data, Albuquerque Public Schools’ exemplary teachers made up 3.6 percent of district teachers in the last academic year.

Statewide, 5.7 percent of teachers were rated exemplary. In all, PED spokesman Chris Eide said the state department disbursed about $6.4 million worth of Excellence in Teaching Awards statewide.

The money is not without controversy.

In an email sent to federation representatives this month, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation wrote that the union and the APS Board of Education are opposed to merit pay.

ATF said APS and the union originally had agreed they would not take merit pay money, but APS is required to distribute the Excellence in Teaching Awards per state law.

“In the past, there was language in the budget that stated that merit pay must be negotiated,” the email said. “APS and ATF have been philosophically opposed to merit pay and have agreed that we would not take the money.”

A provision in this year’s state budget bill would have given teachers unions the ability to decide whether to participate in the bonus program for highly ranked educators, but Gov. Susana Martinez used her lineitem veto authority to strike that language.

Eide said Excellence in Teaching Awards are a way to acknowledge the state’s best teachers.

“The PED believes that great teachers are to be celebrated as much as we can possibly celebrate them and we hope that everyone would agree,” he wrote in an email.

Gov.-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham has said she plans to change the state teacher evaluation system to a new model and previously told the Journal she doesn’t believe teachers perform better due to merit pay.