FISCAL NOTE

Senate Bill 327 as introduced establishes the Teacher Excellence and Accountability for Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) Salary Schedule Program to be administered by the State Department of Education (SDE), beginning with the 2021-2022 school year. The TEAMS Program will provide eligible teachers, electing to participate in the program, with an incremental salary increase net of the State Minimum Salary Schedule. This bill requires participating teachers to agree to certain requirements that include a contract of 189 days; and to obtain a specialized certification or credential within three years of admission to the program. This bill also provides for a hard-to-staff annual supplement of $5,000 for participating teachers teaching in hard-to-staff schools, as designated by the SDE. This bill provides that each local educational agency (LEA) qualifies for one TEAMS Program teacher for every 105 students in combined grades 6-12 which would allow an estimated 7,000 teachers to participate in the program statewide, thereby increasing the obligations of the Education Trust Fund by an undetermined amount dependent upon: (1) the number of teachers that qualify to participate in the TEAMS program; (2) the net salary supplement a participant qualifies for based on experience and years of service; and (3) the number of participants that qualify to receive the additional hard-to-staff supplement.

Further, this bill provides that a teacher that has attained continuing service status and elects to participate in the program shall be deemed to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited his or her status and protections under the Students First Act of 2011 after being awarded a TEAMS contract. This bill allows a LEA to cancel or terminate the contract of a participating teacher under certain conditions; however, a participating teacher would be entitled to a hearing and an appeal in circuit court which could increase the obligations of the LEA by an undetermined amount dependent upon the number of hearings and appeals initiated and the cost of each.

In addition, this bill creates the non-reverting TEAMS Fund, to be funded through appropriations from the Legislature, for SDE to allocate the salary supplements provided by this bill to local educational agencies (LEAs) monthly for participating teachers.