On Monday night, a number of different leaders, which includes Republicans, Democrats, teachers and various educational employees, came to an agreement on a specific bill that would change the employment laws within the state of Utah.

With a unanimous vote, the SB64 bill was approved. The bill has been set to make teachers and other school district employees much more responsible for the way they work and how they perform on the job by incorporating their performance with how well they are paid and whether or not the well be able to keep their jobs. Now that the different leaders have agreed unanimously, the bill is being sent to the Senate floor.

The bill sponsor, Senator Aaron Osmond, says that he is excited about the bill, especially because all of the different people were able to come to an agreement and vote unanimously on the bill in order to ensure the students at schools are receiving the best education possible.

Under this bill, the employees of the district, this includes teachers as well, will be rated on their performance through an evaluation. Employees that receive less than stellar ratings would typically not be able to receive a raise during the scheduled raise period. And, any employee who receives poor ratings for at least two out of three years could face termination.

Under the bill, administrators would also be under evaluation. The evaluation would be based primarily on how well the students of the school do in terms of achieving good grades, how well they perform as a leader, and the ability to make sure all evaluations of teachers are done. The school districts would then be able to choose payment for the administrators based on the evaluations they have received.

There were a few concerns amongst some of the committee members. Senator Howard Stephenson said he would like a limit set for the percentage of teachers who would be able to receive top ratings. He also questioned why the evaluation did not contain evaluations of teachers based on how well their students perform and what they have managed to achieve. Another Senator, Senator Lyle Hillyard, expressed concerns that administrators would give top ratings to all teachers as a way of helping them to keep their job and also receive a raise.

Osmond said that with the bill, it is important that one step be taken at a time. He believes that his bill is one of the first steps that are being taken. And, to assure the committee members of fairness, the State Superintendent, Larry Shumway, said that the evaluations of teachers will likely be based on how well the students do with that particular teachers, based on the achievement of the different students within the classroom.