The Texas Education Agency announced Thursday that Harmony Public Schools is among the first recipients of the new Teacher Incentive Allotment, a special fund created to reward the state’s highest-performing teachers.
The recognition means that hundreds of Harmony teachers across the state will receive up to $32,000 in additional salary starting this fall.
“Each day at Harmony Public Schools, we see how teachers have the extraordinary ability to make a deep and lasting impact on the lives of the children they reach,” Harmony Public Schools CEO Faith Ay said. “We are glad to have the opportunity to see them rewarded even further for all they do for our students and their families, and appreciative of the TEA for making this possible.”
The Texas Legislature created the Teacher Incentive Allotment in 2019 as part of the state’s new education bill, known as HB3, whose primary purpose was to provide new funds for across-the-board pay raises for Texas teachers.
Harmony used those funds and others to create comprehensive pay raises for its staff, including $3,000-$5,000 raises for each of its teachers in base pay, with additional dollars for working hard-to-staff subjects and for length of service.
Additionally, HB3 created a separate funding pool known as the Teacher Incentive Allotment for the specific purpose of providing additional salary for teachers who demonstrated exceptional performance in hard-to-staff teaching positions, including low-income and rural communities.
Of the 26 districts in Texas chosen for TIA funds, five were Harmony districts, including Harmony Science Academy – San Antonio, serving San Antonio, Brownsville and Laredo.
Teachers selected will receive between $3,000-$32,000 per year for five years in added salary, directly from the TEA. A total of 275 Harmony teachers will receive the funds beginning this fall, including 32 who will receive the top tier “Masters” designation. Additional Harmony teachers will be eligible for TIA funds for the next four years.
Harmony Public Schools is a statewide Texas public charter school system with campuses across the state and in the Rio Grande Valley. Harmony’s curriculum places a heavy focus on STEM skills, character education, project-based learning, and college readiness.
