BEMIDJI-Local education leaders await a decision from the Minnesota Department of Education on a hastily revised "Q Comp" plan after the department approved the school district's original plan more quickly than anticipated.
If approved, the new plan-which outlines structures and new staffing for teacher professional development, evaluations, performance pay, and more-would only apportion about two-thirds as much money as the original one.
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Bemidji Area حلحلآ»s administrators and officials intended to implement the district's first-ever Q Comp plan in October 2017. The department of education would have funded about two-thirds of the plan-roughly $950,000-and leave the remaining $450,000 to the district, which planned to raise the money with a new tax levy enacted this year.
But district staff said the department pushed the plan's scheduled implementation date up to Oct. 1 of this year, which means the حلحلآ» Board had three options: enact a $900,000 "double levy" to pay for the plan this year and next; reject the department's new timeline and move back into the pool of applicants vying for the state aid; or direct district staff to scramble to come up with a new Q Comp plan that would start this year and use nothing but state money, but might not be approved by the state in time.
حلحلآ» board members were generally reluctant to implement the double levy, citing the burden on taxpayers, but many were equally reluctant to risk walking away from state resources, which would mean losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars for teacher development.
"Roughly 8 or 9 percent of your total levy would be increased with that one line item," said Chris Leinen, who oversees the district's business services, of the first option. Leinen later clarified that the first option wouldn't necessarily mean that a resident's total taxes would go up 8 or 9 percent, however, because other taxing jurisdictions-the county, city, and so on-also contribute to a taxpayer's total obligation. Taxes incurred by the school district itself, however, would increase by that amount under the potential "double levy."
The board directed school district staff to work on the third option, and Bemidji Education Association President Jason Koester said a new plan was sent off to the education department Wednesday.
Because it doesn't include any money from a local levy, the new plan was cut by roughly one third. Koester said the original plan would mean some teachers would effectively get side jobs doing peer review or something similar, while the district would hire other people to part-time positions and one "Q Comp coordinator." The new plan, if approved, would keep the proposed staffing additions, but each new position would pay about two-thirds as much as previously planned.
"It's better than nothing," Koester said.
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Staff at Monday's board meeting said the original Q Comp plan took about a year to formulate, including two rounds of revisions at the education department's request.
"Our intent has always been that the plan would be implemented 13 months from now," Jordan Hickman, the district's director of human resources, said at the meeting. Recent changes enacted by the state Legislature meant there was more state money for Q Comp plans, and that money is doled out on what is effectively a first-come-first-served basis.
"Some district dropped out of the queue ahead of us, and we're in," Hickman said.
He added that the department of education approved the plan and new timeline last week, saying, "it was kind of foisted upon us by that notification that the state would fund us this year."
The teachers union is scheduled to vote on the new plan throughout the day Sept. 27, and the board is scheduled to vote on it at 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 28. Union members had already signed off on the original plan, but the board has not.
A representative from the department of education did not return a request for comment.
