HISD chief apologizes for bonus comment

So the $14 million performance-based bonuses handed out this week to HISD teachers and staff aren't going over so well, apparently — some teachers are hinting that they'll call in sick next week to protest what they say are inequalities in the bonus system, and Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra had to apologize yesterday for calling teachers who got big bonuses "the cream of the crop."

It's not that the teachers who got megabonuses aren't good — it's just that there are some teachers who are also good, but didn't get bonuses. Saavedra said he didn't mean to exclude those folks when he made the "cream" remark at a news conference about the bonuses, but he didn't realize people were offended until he got dozens of angry e-mails: "The sense I got from the e-mails is, there's a lot of confusion out there and a misunderstanding of the system itself," he said. "I also felt that some of my statements at the press conference were misconstrued." The problem, some teachers say, is that the bonus program is based on test scores and favors teachers of core subjects like math and reading — in other words, the subjects that appear on standardized tests. "As I have said many times, we have excellent, high-performing teachers at all levels and in all schools in HISD," Saavedra wrote in an apologetic e-mail to employees. "Many of those teachers received performance pay and some did not." The teachers aren't the only ones upset, though: Food-service workers, bus drivers, custodians and other staff members who draw hourly pay didn't qualify for the bonuses, which Houston Educational Support Personnel Union President Wretha Thomas called an insult. "My members are outraged and tired of HISD slapping them in the face and overlooking the important role they play in the district," she said in a statement.

As for the plan for teachers to call in sick, that would be a mistake, Houston Federation of Teachers President Gayle Fallon said, because any form of a strike could cost teachers their jobs and certification. "We can do better. Let's go talk to the people who passed this," Fallon said, urging teachers to talk their problems over with HISD trustees at the Feb. 8 school board meeting.