The Albert Lea school board continued to study the effectiveness of the district’s alternative teacher pay option Monday.

Q-Comp is the name of that option, and Superintendent Mike Funk explained that a survey showed teachers generally like it but improvements could be made.

Funk said more than 200 teachers replied to a survey about what they thought of the program.

“Staff agrees that meetings have positively impacted instructional practice,” Funk said.

While teachers did respond that they liked time to observe other teachers there were things about the program they wished could improve. Funk said he likes professional learning communities, but he is feeling a disconnect between teachers and building principals.

“We’re looking at ways to improve the program,” Funk said.

One idea Funk mentioned was to have the teacher who is named the building coordinator for the program meet with the principal and other building coordinators to talk about strategies. Board Chairman Bill Leland said he’s in favor of professional learning communities, but he wants to see a system in place to produce results.

“Let’s create some validity that we can prove,” Leland said.

At the prior meeting Funk had said he would survey staff and look more into the program that hadn’t shown proof of student achievement.

In other action, the school board:

• Heard from Sibley Elementary School Principal Ross Williams about the Minnesota Reading Corps program at the elementary schools in the district. Williams and reading volunteers talked about the positive aspects of the program and how many students they’ve helped.

• Heard from Jim Quiram, director of technology for the district, about the new website that will be launched later this week. Look to the Tribune in print and online as more information about the website becomes available.

• Talked about the calendar for the 2011-12 school year. Funk wanted to get the board’s opinion on not having a spring break, which would allow the school year to end on June 1. It was decided to ask staff in the district which they would prefer.

• Heard from Lori Volz, director of finance and operations for the district, about the amended budget for the 2010-11 school year. She said the budget will give administration an idea of what the next budget year would look like. Funk said he will begin looking at possibly reducing some programs or positions.