Nearly a decade ago, voters approved a $25 million annual property tax increase for Denver Public Schools to fund performance and retention pay for teachers who best help students learn.
But now, 90 percent of eligible DPS teachers are receiving the additional compensation, according to a database obtained under state open records laws, even though 22 percent of teachers in the district were deemed not to have achieved the “effective” teaching standard.
Critics say the ProComp tax increase was always about collecting more tax revenue for the district than rewarding teachers who truly help students.
“It was sold to teachers in a different way than it was sold to the public,” said Mark Barlock, a former DPS teacher who led the fight against ProComp in 2005 and now teaches outside the district. “Teachers were told, ‘You understand this is how to get more taxpayer money for DPS, and we decide how to use the money we get.’”
But Shayne Spalten, DPS chief of human resources, said the ballot measure was always designed to reward high-performing teachers and attract teachers to low-performing schools. There are several categories that qualify teachers for ProComp payments, and that’s why nearly all DPS teachers receive some portion of the tax increase money.
“The ballot language had two goals: support recruitment and retention particularly in high poverty areas and drive increase student achievement,” she said. “That’s where you get a variation in incentives.”
And some of the money is apparently going to teachers who can’t even meet the basic requirements of their job. Ten percent of eligible teachers did not receive ProComp bonuses or pay, but district records show 21 percent of DPS teachers this year were rated as “approaching” effectiveness and 1 percent as “not meeting” effectiveness.
The payments over the past two years ranged from $3.76 to nearly $30,000 over two years, with an average this year of $7,300 per teacher. The percentage of teachers receiving ProComp increased from 40 percent in 2006-07 school year to 90 percent this year, records show.
