As teachers prepare to vote Thursday on a proposed six-year contract, some are troubled about the deal, which includes a move in July 2013 to a performance-based compensation system that rewards "effective" teachers with raises.

About 100 teachers came out Tuesday night for an informational meeting with Hawaii State Teachers Association leaders, and several attendees asked how they are expected to approve the transition to a new salary schedule when the evaluations that will be used to rate performance are still being developed.

"We’d really like a contract," said Catherine Cain, who teaches second grade at Waikiki Elementary, "but the bottom line is we want fair and equitable teacher evaluations."

The new evaluations will be based in part on a teacher’s influence on student academic growth, but the details on how progress will be measured — and used to judge teachers — aren’t yet clear.

"I feel like we need more time to digest it (the deal)," said Amii Pearce, a kindergarten teacher at Wailuku Elementary, who has been posting her concerns on HSTA’s Facebook page.

Performance-based compensation, she said, "doesn’t create a collaborative environment and does add a huge amount of pressure."

Charles Fulks, a counselor at Kauai High School, said he doesn’t "trust the state to come up with a fair way to evaluate teachers."

"It’s very dangerous," he added.

But others supported the deal.

Inga Park Okuna, a counselor at Kalihi Uka Elementary, said she plans to vote in favor because she trusts HSTA’s leadership, especially the teachers who make up the bulk of the union’s executive board.

"If they’re saying this is the best we can get, then I’m going to go with that," she said. "I’d rather have things settled."

Before the informational session at the Hawai’i Convention Center, HSTA President Wil Okabe said he has been hearing mixed comments from teachers about the tentative agreement, which the union’s executive board unanimously approved Jan. 6, sending it to teachers for ratification.

He said he is "optimistic" the deal will be ratified, and added that the "contract is night and day, completely different" from the "last, best and final" offer the state unilaterally implemented July 1. That offer included wage reductions and higher health insurance premiums.

Under the proposed contract, teachers — like other public workers — would continue to see 5 percent wage reductions through June 30, 2013, before moving to a new salary schedule that recognizes their years of service with the state Department of Education. The department would also move to a revised teacher evaluation system, and teachers rated "effective" or "highly effective" would be eligible for 1 percent "step" raises annually.

If approved, the new contract would run from July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2017.

Teachers will vote on the contract at polling places around the islands. Okabe said he expects to announce the results late Thursday.

The six-year agreement is aimed at ending a months-long labor dispute that has placed at risk Hawaii’s $75 million federal Race to the Top grant.

Delays in reaching key collective bargaining agreements on reform issues, included new teacher evaluations, have been blamed in part for the U.S. Department of Education’s decision last month to place Hawaii’s Race to the Top grant on "high-risk" status.

Hawaii is the only grant winner in such jeopardy.