Teachers must repay bonuses
Published: Tue, Nov. 06, 2007 12:32PM
Modified Tue, Nov. 06, 2007 12:41PM
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closeRALEIGH -- Teachers at a Wake County high school will have to return half of $1,500 bonuses mistakenly given to them by the state.
State officials said last week that teachers at the Wake Early College of Health and Sciences, a magnet school in Raleigh, should have received bonuses of $750. Wake school officials said today they will make the teachers repay the amount instead of taking the money from the the school district.
Wake school officials said they'll work with the teachers on installment plans so that they don't' have to return all the money at once. The change affects 10 teachers for a total of $7,500.
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"We'll work with the teachers to not to make it a hardship for them," said Bill Poston, a Wake schools' spokesman.
The $1,500 bonuses were handed out within the past few weeks. State officials have said state law requires them to get the money back.
Because the bonus money goes to individual school districts to distribute to the teachers, state officials left it to the Wake school district to decide how to return the money.
The state judges schools on how well students grasp course material, based on their performance on tests. If students do well enough, teachers get bonuses of $750 and teacher assistants get bonuses of $375. If test scores significantly exceed expected results, the bonuses rise to $1,500 for teachers and $500 for assistants.
In September, state schools Superintendent June Atkinson announced $107 million in bonuses.
But state officials said a further review of test results showed enough errors to change the bonuses at seven schools across the state.
Wake school officials are blaming the state for the mistake. They say the state's software problems omitted some test results.
Wake Early College allows students to graduate in five years with both a high school diploma and either an associate's degree or two years of college credit. The school works closely with Wake Technical Community College and WakeMed.
Wake Early College opened in 2006 and has 160 students.
keung.hui@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4534.
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