School Administrators Waiting To Hear About 2004-05 Bonuses Blame Klein

As the city's schools chancellor, Joel Klein, advocates a system of performance-based pay, some say that if the system applied to him, he wouldn't earn a bonus for following through on the point.

With this school year coming to an end, public school administrators are still waiting to hear about bonus checks for the 2004-05 school year.

Principals qualify for bonuses of between $5,500 and $15,000 under an agreement reached in 1999.

"If Klein wanted it done, then it would be done," a spokesman for the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, Richard Relkin, said. "It shows his lack of respect for principals and assistant principals and the education administrators who run the schools - it's not his priority."

The Department of Education said it that it is still crunching numbers to determine which school administrators qualify for the bonuses. Typically principals are notified in April or May and then receive the money after they fill out paperwork.

The department budgeted more than $6.5 million for the bonuses in the 2003-04 school year.

In elementary and middle schools, the department looks at student scores on standardized tests in determining payment. In high schools, the department takes into consideration graduation rates and scores on Regents exams.

Up to 25% of top-performing principals, assistant principals, and administrators are eligible for the bonuses.

To receive the bonus money, educators must write a three-page essay detailing the reasons for their success. The checks are doled out in sums of $5,500 for low improvement, $10,000 for medium improvement, and $15,000 for high improvement.

Earlier this year, the education department extended its deadline for the essays because about 470 public school administrators were in danger of failing to file on time and would miss out on more than $1.5 million in bonuses.

"I think it's unfair, people have a right to know," the principal of Middle School 181 in Coop City in the Bronx, Stephen Bennett, said. "If they've worked hard they have the right to get the bonus that they've earned." Mr. Bennett received a $5,500 bonus check for the 2003-2004 school year.

Public school principals, assistant principals, and administrators in top schools can qualify for bonuses ranging from $2,500 to $15,000.

Some principals are waiting to hear about the additional pay before deciding whether to retire because pensions are based on their salaries in the last year of employment.

Although Mr. Klein has often talked about looking to mimic a corporate model in the public schools, including the use of incentive pay, this year he put a different performance-pay program on hold.

The education department hired more than 100 people to serve as local instructional supervisors - a position created under the Bloomberg administration's newly organized school system. The job description included a $135,000 salary with the potential of a $15,000 bonus.

In the first year, the city paid out about $370,000 in bonuses to 97 local instructional supervisors. While Mr. Klein, heralded the program as a model for performance-based pay, the education department quietly did away with the payments after the 2003-04 school year.

An aide to Mr. Klein said the department was putting the additional payments on hold while it shifted focus to a new "accountability" initiative. Mr. Klein wanted to align the bonus pay with the department's new efforts.

The director of labor policy for the education department, Dan Weisberg, yesterday called the bonus system a "massive undertaking" that involves complex number crunching.

"The goal is to get it done by the end of year," Mr. Weisberg said.