The performance awards for individual teachers mandated by SB 1667 and AB 1114 threaten teacher collegiality, according to CTA's State Council of Education.
At its February meeting, Council took a strong stand against the state's financial reward system: "CTA believes instead of rewarding individual students, teachers, schools or districts based on the results of a test, state monies should be used towards resources that will help all students meet statewide standards."
CTA's State Council voted to monitor, publicize and encourage all stands taken by school staff members against monetary rewards based on the Public Schools Accountability Act, including refusal or donation of reward checks.
SB 1667 school site performance awards
The California Department of Education (CDE) estimates that award money due under the Schoolsite Employees Performance Act (SB 1667) will be sent to county offices in mid-April.
Fifty percent of the total amount of the award must be distributed as a one-time bonus to all certificated and classified site staff in equal, individual amounts based on FTE status.
The remaining 50 percent is to be expended at the school site for any one-time educational purpose. The use of this portion of the award is to be decided by the existing school site governance team and ratified by the local school board. The legislation is silent as to what happens if these parties cannot agree on the use of the funds.
CTA is advising local chapters not to participate in the decision-making process for the expenditure of the site funds: the process should be the province of the site council/governance team. If any district attempts to use AB 1667 funds for non-instructional purposes, the chapter should contact CTA's Negotiations and Organizational Development Department at (650) 697-1400.
AB 1114 certificated staff incentives
The CDE expects to send the award money - for the Certificated Staff Performance Incentive Act (AB 1114) to county offices in May. The original target date was April, but litigation dealing with schools' eligibility for AB 1114 awards has resulted in a court order which has stopped the actual apportionment of the award funds pending the conclusion of the litigation. If the litigation is successful, additional schools will become eligible, which in turn could have the effect of bumping currently eligible schools to a lower rank on the awards list. In addition, the CDE is presently calculating the results of the recent FTE data collection (the current list is based on an FTE count from 1999). Once the 2000 FTE count is completed, the awards list ranking could also be changed.
Once all of these complications have been resolved, each district governing board and the bargaining representative will negotiate the amount of certificated staff awards. If there is no agreement, the award amount for individual certificated employees will be determined by a set formula (each teacher will be paid a percentage of his or her base salary, the percentage to be determined by dividing the total award amount to the school by the sum of annual base salaries of all certificated staff at the site). The CDE's position is that once the award money has been sent to the appropriate county office of education, the actual details of the awards distribution become a local matter.
Rejecting or donating award money
Because CTA's State Council of Education has adopted a policy opposing the awards program, local chapters are being advised to waive their right to bargain the amounts of individual awards. The State Council policy also encourages individual teachers not to accept awards.
However, the decision whether or not to accept an award under AB 1114 or SB 1667 is an individual matter. A chapter cannot bargain an agreement with a district to refuse individual awards on behalf of its members. Obviously, any teacher who has an award check cut in his or her name will be liable for taxes on the amount of his or her award.
Any teachers who attempt to direct the disposition of award money for example, stipulating that it be spent at their school site - would likely have tax liability because they would be deemed to have constructively received the payment. Since CTA does not provide individual tax advice, members should consult a tax advisor before deciding to refuse award money and either donate it or direct how it should be spent.
Any teacher contemplating refusing an award should contact chapter leaders as soon as possible. The chapter will devise a simple form for the teacher to sign and give to the district. This form should state only the teacher's desire that no AB 1114 and/ or SB 1667 award be paid to that teacher, period, with no mention of where that teacher wants the refused money to go (the teacher should retain a copy of the form). Under this procedure, there would probably be no individual tax liability for the refused award.
In addition, chapters have been directed to negotiate hold-harmless agreements with districts in the interest of insulating those teachers from any IRS attempt to assess tax liability on an award that they never received. Local chapters will also attempt to assure that neither the district nor the county office reports the refused awards as income. Again, pursuant to State Council's policy, affected chapters should not attempt to bargain the manner in which any refused awards would be spent or dispersed. It is likely that refused awards would either be divided up among the non-refusing teachers at the site or remain in the district's general fund.
As with SB 1667, teachers who feel that they or their school site have been unfairly denied an AB 1114 award bonus should be referred to CTA's Legal Department at (650) 697-1400.
Ballinger G. Kemp
Kemp is a CTA staff attorney.
