Sedona Red Rock High School, West Sedona School and Big Park Community School presented their GEM goals to each other Dec. 6.

Sedona Red Rock High School, West Sedona School and Big Park Community School presented their GEM goals to each other Dec. 6.

Goals outlined by each school must be met for teachers to receive their GEM bonus.

Arizona Proposition 301 allocated extra funds to school districts. Performance pay is one component of the money available.

The GEM program was developed by the Sedona-Oak Creek School District for teachers to receive performance pay under the proposition.

SRRHS set a schoolwide goal along with departmental and individual goals. Teachers will receive their pay if either their schoolwide, departmental or personal goals are met.

Decreasing excessive absences in at least one class by 10 percent is SRRHS’

schoolwide goal, meaning approximately 20 more kids will receive credit in a class they would not have before.

“We finally said enough is enough,” SRRHS principal Russ Snider said.

Departmentally, career technology education aims to increase enrollment by 8 percent, math department expects no seniors to be denied graduation for failing the math portion of the Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Students test and school counselors plan to meet with all juniors to discuss their future plans.

West Sedona School’s goal is to implement AIMS’ six traits of writing — organization, ideas, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conversations — schoolwide.

For performance pay to be earned, posters must be visible in all rooms, pre- and post-test scores must show evidence of growth and an administrative walk-through conducted.

Goal achievement is based on grade level.

Big Park Community School’s goal is similar to West Sedona’s in that it implements the six writing traits, but the school will judge achievement differently.

Students wrote a paper last fall and will write another at the end of the year.

The papers will be compared and 80 percent of the students must display at least half a point improvement on a six-point scale for bonuses to be issued.

Teachers’ bonuses rely only on their class’ performance.

The Dec. 6 meeting allowed each school to present its goals to the other two for acceptance.

Next, goals for all three schools will be voted on by all district teachers before they are approved.

For goals to be implemented, they must receive 70 percent approval.

Final goals will be presented to the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board later in December.