School districts must submit plans to the state by Oct. 1 on how they plan to divvy up "differential pay" funds to employees based on student achievement results.

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

After three meetings, a Post Falls committee consisting of staff from each school and administrators has recommended to the school board in that district that the state model be adopted.

"The committee felt that it was important for the plan to be as easy to understand as possible and fair," said Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane, who made the recommendation to the board on Monday night during the meeting at City Hall.

The board is expected to make a decision on the plan in August or September.

The differential pay funds were authorized by the Idaho Legislature as an appropriation during the last session.

The program is similar to the previous "pay-for-performance" law that was a part of the repealed Students Come First package, although districts will receive less funding under the differential pay program.

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 is planning on receiving $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.

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.

Under Post Falls' plan, 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 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.

Differential pay has also been bantered by Lakeland administrators and staff.

"When teachers return in August, we will formalize their recommendations and turn in a plan to the state by the due date (Oct. 1)," Lakeland Superintendent Mary Ann Ranells said.

Differential pay is for one year only. The Governor's Task Force on Education Reform continues to discuss merit pay and will make a recommendation to the 2014 Legislature that may be different than the current program. 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.

Differential pay funds are not part of the negotiated agreements between districts and teacher unions, which deal with base salary hikes, increases for education and experience steps and health insurance premiums. Those contracts were finalized a month ago.