The Panorama School District was recently named one of 39 school districts in the state that will receive first-year grant funding in 2014-15 through the Iowa Department of Education’s new Teacher Leadership & Compensation Program.

As elated as she is that her district was selected, Panorama Superintendent Kathy Elliot says the teacher leadership work is only beginning, and she describes what’s next.

“We need to hit the ground running.  We actually started working last week hoping that we would be selected, just working to put some of the application materials together (for teachers) on how to apply for (the program).  We’ll be planning here in the next week to meet with any teachers interested and then get the applications rolling.”

Panorama will receive just over $300 per pupil next year to implement the new teacher leadership system, and Elliot says that additional funding will directly impact more than a dozen district teachers.

“14 teachers that are teaching here now will now be in some sort of a teacher leader role.  A couple will be full-time in a leadership role, but a lot of others will be aiding the classroom most of the time but also helping with some leadership things and getting paid some extra money… And I think that is one of the nice things about this (grant), we’ve had people doing this leadership work for a long time, but finally having a way to compensate them for that work is really great.”

To hear Elliot discuss Panorama’s new involvement with the Teacher Leadership & Compensation Program in full detail, tune-in to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County on K107 during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours.