The Post Falls School Board has settled how it will handle merit pay for district employees.

School districts must submit plans to the state by Oct. 1 on how they plan to divvy up differentiated pay funds to employees based on student achievement results. The money was authorized by the Idaho Legislature as an appropriation during the last session.

Districts can form their own model or adopt the state's existing Star rating system that measures student achievement success at each school.

The Post Falls board decided to approve a district committee's recommendation that the state model be adopted.

"I think the system provides for a fair and understandable way to distribute the funds the state has provided the district," Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane said. "We are pleased that support staff are eligible to receive some of the money."

The program is similar to the previous "pay-for-performance" law that was a part of the repealed Students Come First education reform package, although districts will receive less funding under the differential pay program. One of the reasons for the funding decrease is that some of the money went toward professional development to implement the Common Core standards, school officials said.

Pay for performance was for certificated staff only, while differential pay is available to all district employees.

Post Falls will receive $240,000 for differential pay, compared to nearly $1 million it received last year under pay for performance. Lakeland, which is still considering a plan, expects to receive $175,200 this year as opposed to $884,042 last year. For some employees, it will mean receiving hundreds of dollars compared to as high as $3,500 last year.

Under the plan approved by Post Falls, certified staff at a school with a five-star rating, the highest rating possible, would receive $700 each and classified staff $400 each.

At a school with a four-star rating, the amounts would be $600 for certified staff and $300 classified staff. Employees at a three-star school would receive $500 or $200 and at a two-star school $400 and $100. Employees at a one-star school would not receive funding under the program.

Shares could go up or down depending on overall school ratings. If the program is implemented, it would be based on the 2014 ratings.

It will likely be a one-year program, Keane said.

"The Governor's task force will be making recommendations regarding pay to the Legislature that will probably be considerably more prescriptive," he said. "Also, with the district transitioning from the ISAT (Idaho Standard Achievement Test) to the Idaho Core Exam, it is a little difficult to predict how we will be able to use those test results."

The task force previously did not make a recommendation on the funds, which meant individual districts were left to decide on the programs this year.

A Post Falls committee consisting of staff from each school and administrators recommended to the school board a differential pay plan after three meetings.