I need to find out more about ProComp, the merit-pay plan. But a mere $150 or so a month after taxes for teaching in quote-unquote ‘high poverty schools’ (warning, code words!) is pretty sad.

‘Denver teachers voted 3-1 to approve a three-year contract with the Denver Public Schools Tuesday. “It was the best deal we could get for our members,” said Kim Ursetta, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association of the contract. … The vote was 77.5 percent to accept the agreement and 22.5 percent to reject it. A total of 1,877 votes were cast. The DPS board has already approved the contract, which is the first multiple-year deal in 20 years. It goes into effect immediately and runs through Aug. 31, 2011. Under its provisions, all teachers will get a cost of living increase of 3 percent, and in each of the next two years, salary will increase by an amount equal to the Consumer Price Index plus .25 percent.
‘… If DPS is able to merge its retirement system with the state, another increase of .4 percent above the index will be added. The new agreement calls for teachers getting more time for training and planning with five “late start” days in 2008-2009. If DPS completes its retirement merger before June 30, 2009, teachers will get an extra school day in 2010-2011. The contract also provides for some changes to ProComp, Denver’s groundbreaking pay-for-performance plan. Starting in 2008-2009, bonuses such as teaching in high poverty schools will be increased to $2,345 each year.’
—Rocky Mountain News

An immediate three percent at my current salary here in California is about $100 a month … before taxes. In other words, a tank of gas. Whoop-de-doop.

Of course, even that would actually be great. We’ve been working without a contract since June and go to fact-finding in October. It’s going to be a rough fall. So even a couple hundred extra sounds good to us in PUSD.