Been gathering feedback from teachers and former union leaders today on the synopsis of what’s in HSTA’s agreement (state folks refuse to talk about it until it’s ratified).

Everyone seems to share a few big questions:

• What is the teacher evaluation going to look like?
• How exactly will the evaluations play into performance pay? Everyone who receives a “satisfactory” each year gets an automatic raise of the same amount?
• Are the personal leave days still going to be taken out of sick leave? And will they be paid or unpaid?
• What about this supplemental time off? Paid or unpaid? Is it just another name for the furloughed teacher planning days?

There’s a lot to analyze here. Early rumblings are that the National Education Association (HSTA is the local NEA chapter) isn’t going to think very highly of the evaluations and performance pay if they’re based solely on student test scores. But the decision is ultimately up to HSTA members.