15 teachers in Harmony Public Schools will receive bonuses this week equaling $145,764 as part of the Texas Educations Agency's Teacher Incentive Allotment, a special fund created to reward the state’s highest-performing teachers. The recognition means that these Harmony teachers are receiving up to nearly $18,000 in additional salary.

The teachers will receive the bonuses this fall and again in the next four years. Three of those teachers received a "Master" designation and will earn the maximum allotment for their extraordinary efforts in helping boost student achievement.

“Nothing we do in education can be achieved without the dedicated hard work of our teachers, said Ramazan Coskuner, Houston South/West District Superintendent. "Their guiding hands lead our students to a pathway of success and we are so thankful to the TEA for recognizing their contributions.”

The Teacher Incentive Allotment was created by the Texas Legislature in 2019 as part of the state’s new education bill, known as HB3. The primary purpose of HB3 was to provide new funds for across-the-board pay raises for Texas teachers. Harmony used those funds as well as others for one of the state’s most comprehensive pay increases 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 also 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.

Teachers selected can receive between $3,000-$32,000 per year for five years in added salary, directly from the TEA.

Harmony Public Schools is currently accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year for both students and team members.