Teachers’ incentive pay that the federal government has been funding will become Wiscasset’s responsibility next year, a school official said.

A federal grant for the incentive pay and other ways to boost teachers’ growth runs out after this school year. The deal was, if a district took the money, the new measures that came out of the project were to continue after the aid stopped, according to Wiscasset High School Assistant Principal Sarah Ricker and the Maine Department of Education’s website at www.maine.gov/doe.

Ricker serves on the Wiscasset School Department’s steering committee of teachers, administrators and School Committee member Chelsea Haggett, who all work on the project.

Wiscasset schools were included in the grant program’s first four years, while the town was in Regional School Unit 12; when Wiscasset left the district, it chose to stay in the program.

Teachers have given positive feedback about the program’s peer observations, where one teacher documents another’s work in the classroom, Ricker said. A teacher can observe a fellow faculty member within a school, or observe a teacher who works at another school in the department.

The observations do not count as evaluations on the teachers. Under state law, only administrators can evaluate teachers, Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said.

The School Committee on Sept. 4 approved a teacher evaluation program handbook that the steering committee drafted.

“The overarching purpose of the ... program is to improve instruction and learner growth, thereby empowering all learners to succeed in a rapidly changing world,” the handbook states.

The teacher incentive pay that has been part of the program will need to be negotiated as part of the next teachers’ contract, Ricker said. The School Committee has been preparing for upcoming contract talks with teachers, support staff and administrators. At Thursday’s meeting, the committee spent about an hour in a closed-door session with lawyers to continue getting ready for those talks.

The incentive pay could be set up in a number of ways, Ricker said. Maine Schools for Excellence, which has led the work on the federally funded program in Maine, has models it can present to the school department to help with the planning, she said.

Participating Maine school departments might get some help with meeting costs of the new measures. “Ongoing efforts will be made to secure additional funding to support (Maine Schools for Excellence) districts and others in recruiting, retaining, developing and rewarding effective teachers and principals,” the Maine DOE’s website states in its discussion of the end of the federal funding.

Asked how likely it is that departments will receive state money toward the costs, Ricker said that would depend on support from the legislature.