Incentives announced for Pasco County teachers at 8 ‘Opportunity Schools’

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Paso County recently announced a package of incentives for teachers at eight designated opportunity schools this year.

The initiative was launched in July in hopes of filling any remaining vacancies before the start of the school year.

The goal is to help kids succeed in school, but to do that, the district wants to bring in more strong teachers, especially at what the district calls “opportunity schools.” They are schools that have received a lower grade from the state, a D or lower.

Shana Rafalski, assistant superintendent for Opportunity Schools, says this is a chance to help kids — and find incredible teachers. 

“We know that the teachers of the Opportunity Schools are gonna be working really, really hard,” she said. “There’s a lot of extra scrutiny on them and so for their extra effort, we looked at the funding sources that we had that are earmarked specifically for this type of turnaround work and opted to provide all of the teachers that would qualify on some of this incentive money.”

Teachers and schools are ranked on a state system, known as the “Value Added Model” — or VAM, for short.

Teachers with a highly effective or effective rating on that system can receive up to $15,000 or $7,500, respectively — at a qualifying school.

For teachers who don’t have a state score yet, there’s a different route to the benefits.

Teachers with a district-level, three-year average rating of effective or highly effective can earn up to $4,500. And teachers with no rating can still get $2,000.

One teacher participating in the program is Brittany Nelson, a new STEM curriculum specialist at Anclote Elementary school in Newport Richey. 

She recently moved to the area from Illinois.

“Having this new role as a curriculum specialist, that being able to coach the teachers and in the long run, we’re really looking for student achievement. So being able to be part of that teacher bond in that partnership with the teachers, really, pulled my attention towards that,” she said.

Nelson says she was drawn to Pasco County school’s program not only because of the incentives, but because it recognizes the hard work and dedication that teachers pour into their jobs every day.      

Additionally, all opportunity school teachers receive a 50% discount on several “before and after” school programs during the school year.

There is no deadline to apply.