Forty teachers received the district's first Reynoldsburg Raider Fellowship Awards, thanks to school board action April 21 approving a plan to give each of them an engraved plaque and a check for $3,900.
Superintendent Tina Thomas-Manning said the Raider Fellowship Award recognizes teachers who "serve students in high-impact, expanded or nontraditional ways."
"It feels good to tell people what a good job they are doing," she said. "We received more than 50 nominations for these awards from principals and fellow teachers.
"These are not about data," she said. "They are about teachers making school fun for our students in nontraditional ways and expanded roles and helping those students succeed."
Thomas-Manning said she hopes to grant fellowship awards each year to district teachers and to keep a wall plaque in the board office that lists the award winners.
The fellowship awards were approved as part of a new contract ironed out between teachers and the district last October after months of contentious negotiations over merit pay and caps on class sizes, resulting in a 15-day teachers' strike from Sept. 19 through Oct. 9.
The district added the fellowship award of $3,900 to the new contract and increased a "student incentive" award -- in place for at least a decade -- from $2,000 to $4,000, based on student improvement on state test scores.
Merit pay bonuses for teachers are also in the contract for the 2016-17 school year, based on the state's new teacher-evaluation system, with teachers receiving $1,200 for being rated "accomplished," $800 for "skilled" and $400 for "developing."
Read more at Reynoldsburg News
List of Raider Fellows