The state of Florida's Department of Education is extremely tardy this year with respect to assigning school letter grades to individual schools. This is problematic for many reasons, one of which affects or has the potential to affect teacher bonus paychecks.
Those schools that make and maintain an "A" letter grade-- or improve their school letter grade based upon student test scores---earn recurring, yearly lottery-funded cash bonuses for their schools.
(This is why the idea of assigning "I" or "incomplete" for all schools this year due to numerous testing snafus was roundly criticized by teachers at schools that earn these bonuses regularly)
School advisory committees for each school set plans for how this money is to be distributed.
Schools can do one of three things with this money: Pay staff bonuses, buy instructional materials or aids, or pay for supplemental teachers to come into the school to help students.
Statewide, roughly 90% of the bonus money ends up going toward staff bonuses.
Not surprisingly, the creation of these plans sometimes becomes heated and controversial. Let's face
