The president of the union representing 5,300 New York City school principals and other administrators said yesterday that in forthcoming contract talks she would insist on changing the merit pay system that rewards administrators on the basis of test scores at their schools.þþThe union's president, Jill Levy, said that the merit system had angered many principals who complained that they had little idea how the city chose recipients of the bonuses, which can total $15,000 a year.þþSome principals at respected schools complained that merit bonuses went to principals at several schools where the percentage of students who passed the English Regents had declined.þþÿThere is a sense of bewilderment on the part of people who didn't get the bonuses because they don't understand why they didn't get it,ÿ said Ms. Levy, whose union is the Council of Supervisors and Administrators.þþThe system gives bonuses to principals and other administrators based mainly on whether their schools placed in the top 25 percent in student improvement on many tests compared with similar schools across the city. The schools are grouped according to family income levels and percentage of students speaking English as a second language, among other factors.þþFormer Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had pushed the principals' union to accept the merit pay system, saying it would give principals an incentive to improve performance. The union accepted a merit pay program in December 1999 as part of a landmark contract that gave principals a 33 percent raise, ended tenure for them and eliminated their traditional two-month summer vacation.þþMs. Levy also criticized merit bonuses on the ground that they were accelerating retirements among the 1,200 principals in a school system that already faces problems finding enough of them. She said that principals who received bonuses this year had a major incentive to retire next year because the pensions of many principals are based on income in their last year on the job.þþShe predicted that more than 600 of the city's principals, assistant principals and other administrators would retire this year.þþÿThat's an extraordinarily high number,ÿ she said. ÿThis is an unexpected outcome of the merit pay system.ÿþþSchools Chancellor Harold O. Levy (no relation) acknowledged in an interview that the merit system might encourage more retirements, but he said it would be nothing like the exodus that Ms. Levy predicted.þþÿLast year we had roughly 170 new principals, and I expect roughly the same number this September,ÿ he said. ÿMaybe it could be as high as 200. We believe the additional principals who will be induced to retire as a result of the bonuses will be on the order of 25.ÿþþBut Ms. Levy predicted that the merit bonuses would encourage at least 75 more principals than usual to retire.þþSeveral school system officials acknowledged that the merit system was creating an unanticipated jump in retirements. But they insisted that Ms. Levy was exaggerating how many principals would retire, in order to increase pressure on lawmakers in Albany to pass pension legislation that would help her union's members.þþThe union is urging the State Legislature to enact a bill that would let principals and assistant principals who have been in the system since 1973 use the highest of their last three years of income to calculate their pensions. That bill has stalled in Albany.þþIn March, the city announced that it was distributing $13.5 million in merit pay to 1,368 principals and other administrators. The bonuses ranged from $2,750 to $15,000. For principals in the system since 1973, a $15,000 bonus translates into a $7,500-a-year jump in their annual pension if they retire the year after receiving their bonus. The principals' annual salary averages $93,200.þþJoanne Frank, the principal of Norman Thomas High School on East 33rd Street in Manhattan, criticized the merit program. ÿYou're competing against other schools in your cohort, but you don't know which schools, and when they announce the schools and people who receive the incentive pay, that leaves a lot of unanswered questions, especialy when your school improved. You ask, `Why did School X get it and we didn't?' ÿþþDeputy Chancellor Anthony Shorris said that the school system had sent memos to district superintendents explaining what criteria were used, which schools were in each cohort and how schools performed on the standardized tests. He said he was confident that superintendents gave school principals the lists detailing which schools were in each group.þþBut Ms. Levy said, ÿI have never seen such a list, and I don't know of any principals who have reported seeing one.ÿþ
Source: NY Times
