Teacher Incentive Fund Grant Intro

I am very excited to share with you that today we received wonderful news: we have received a federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant in the amount of $7.2 million dollars!!! This will provide us with resources we sorely need to provide our teachers with an effective instructional model, on-going feedback and coaching, released master and mentor teachers to meet regularly with our teachers, and will also provide assistance for you to make sure we provide effective feedback to help our teachers improve.  The six schools we  included in the grant are Dana, Fairgrove, Lange, Nipomo, Oceano and Mesa, all of which had to be Title I schools with at least 50% free and reduced lunch.  The TIF grant also provides for bonus pay for both teachers and principals based on a rubric as well as on school and student growth. 

We will work closely with our teachers and LMUTA leadership to make sure we work out the details of how the TAP system will work.  There are aspects of the TAP model that we do need to negotiate with LMUTA.  In addition, at each of the schools listed in the grant, 75% of the teachers must agree to participate in the TAP system.  We will work collaboratively with LMUTA to make sure that our teachers have all of the information they need over the coming months to be able to make an informed decision about whether the TAP model is right for their school.  Jason Culbertson from TAP will be visiting Lucia Mar next week to answer questions, and we will also be using this planning year of the grant to provide visitations to TAP schools so our teachers can observe first hand how the model is working for teachers and students.  We are in no hurry to take vote at these sites, and want to make sure teachers have all of their questions answered. 

Again, thanks in particular to those of you who have worked so hard to prepare this grant application.  In these brutal budget times it is gratifying and rewarding to know we have the ability to go after outside funding sources to help support our teachers improve their practice, which in turn will help our students to grow and learn.  What a positive way to start the school year!!

Listed below is the site where you can find the official press release from the Department of Education about the TIF grant.  Lucia Mar was one of 62 grantees, and one of three in California. 

Jim Hogeboom

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-education-announces-442-million-teacher-quality-grants-62-winners-27-