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Floor Packet Page No. 127                                                   



	

Amend HB 2 by Grusendorf by striking SECTION 2A.13 in its 

entirety, beginning on page 78, line 6 and continuing through page 

80, line 17, and substituting it with the following text:

	SECTION 2A.13. Subchapter H, Chapter 21, Education Code, is 

amended by adding Section 21.358 to read as follows:

	Sec. 21.358. LEARNING ENHANCEMENT AWARD PROGRAM (LEAP) FOR 

PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYEES. (a)  The commissioner shall establish the 

Learning Enhancement Award Program to encourage school districts to 

reward those employees who make outstanding contributions at the 

local level to the enhancement of student learning. Each school 

district shall develop a local incentive plan for distributing 

incentive payments to qualifying employees under the Learning 

Enhancement Award Program and shall submit the plan to the 

commissioner for approval.

	(b)  A local incentive plan developed under this section 

shall include learning enhancement goals and priorities 

established annually by the school district through meetings and 

discussions with classroom teachers and administrators at each 

campus in the district. The local incentive plan shall delineate 

specific criteria for awarding incentive payments to individual 

employees and shall demonstrate the relationship between those 

criteria and each of the learning enhancement goals in the plan. The 

criteria for awarding incentive payments may include indicators of 

employee performance, such as teacher evaluations conducted by 

principals, peer reviews and objective measures of student 

achievement.

	(c)  The local incentive plan developed under this section 

must be approved by the district-level planning and decision-making 

committee, as well as the commissioner.

	(d)  From funds appropriated for purposes of this section, 

the commissioner shall award grants to each school district that 

has developed an approved local incentive plan. The commissioner 

shall distribute the grant payments each year to qualifying school 

districts on the basis of the district's actual average daily 

attendance for the preceding school year. The total amount of grant 

payments made to school districts under this section from funds 

appropriated for the Learning Enhancement Award Program may not 

exceed $50 million each fiscal year.

	(d-1)  The commissioner may not award grant payments to 

school districts under this section before the 2006-2007 school 

year. This subsection expires September 1, 2007.

	(e)  Each year a school district shall use grant funds 

received under this section to provide incentive payments to 

individual employees who have contributed to the advancement or 

fulfillment of the learning enhancement goals established by the 

district in its local incentive plan. The district-level planning 

and decision-making committee shall determine the appropriate 

distribution of funds received by the district under this section, 

in accordance with subsections (f) and (g) and the criteria 

established in the local incentive plan.

	(f)  At least 50% of the grant funds received by a district 

under this section shall be used to pay incentives to employees in 

any of the following categories:

		(1)  Experienced teachers who are serving as trained 

mentors to beginning teachers in the same school district, in 

accordance with a state-approved mentoring program, such as the 

Texas Beginning Educator Support System (TxBESS);

		(2)  Teachers who are certified in and teaching in a 

curriculum subject are in which the district is experiencing a 

shortage of qualified teacher as determined by the commissioner;

		(3)  Teachers who are assigned to teach full-time at a 

campus that is difficult to staff, as determined by the 

commissioner, including a rural or academically unacceptable 

campus; and

		(4)  Employees who, as determined by the district, have 

assisted a campus in overcoming an extraordinary or unexpected 

hardship that is believed to have detrimentally affected student 

learning at the campus.

	(g)  Not more than 50% of the funds received under this 

section may be used to pay incentives to full-time classroom 

teachers whose students demonstrate outstanding achievements 

and/or improvements in scholarship, as delineated in criteria in 

the local incentive plan.

	(h)  Using funds appropriated for purposes of this section, 

the commissioner shall adopt rules necessary to implement this 

section. In adopting rules, the commissioner shall include criteria 

and guidelines for evaluating and approving local incentive plans 

and shall promote flexibility in the design of local incentive 

plans.

	(i)  The commissioner shall annually evaluate the 

effectiveness of the Learning Enhancement Award Program at each 

participating campus. The evaluation must consider:

		(1)  the performance of the district's students on 

assessment instruments administered under Section 39.023;

		(2)  the district's high school graduation and 

completion rates;     

		(3)  the district's teacher attrition rates;                           

		(4)  the accountability ratings of the district; and                   

		(5)  the district's success in closing performance gaps 

between educationally disadvantaged students and other populations 

of students.

	(j)  A school district shall include the following 

information in employment contract:

		(1)  that qualifying employees may qualify for and 

receive incentive payments under the Learning Enhancement Award 

Program (LEAP); and

		(2)  that incentive payments awarded under the Learning 

Enhancement Award Program (LEAP) are considered bonuses and are not 

an entitlement as part of an employee's salary.

	(k)  A school district's decision to provide an incentive 

payment under the Learning Enhancement Award Program is final and 

may not be appealed.