As COVID-19 cases rise, Hays CISD struggles to find and retain employees.
The Board of Trustees will vote on a request to amend the 2021-2022 school year compensation plan and the hiring of additional teachers at Monday’s meeting.
“In terms of classroom teachers, we have a report of 14 vacancies,” Hays CISD HR Chief Fernando Medina said. “There is also a need for additional bilingual teachers. This week I approved two resignations [for other staff positions]. And we have three lunchroom monitor positions vacant and one vacancy for a crossing guard.”
To enhance recruitment and retention, the board will consider increasing substitute teacher rates, reducing the years of service a counselor needs to receive maximum salary, adjusting stipend amounts for bilingual teachers and offering paid COVID-19 sick leave.
“I can see where we’re failing in the bilingual stipend side,” Hays CISD Board of Trustee Esperanza Orosco said. “There is a retention bonus, but I know why we cannot hire enough bilingual teachers. They are only making $5,000 with five years of service, and with six to 10 years, they get $250 more. That is it. This illustrates the need for us to clean this bilingual stipend up and to really come to the level that some other districts in our region are doing.”
Increasing the number of teachers, particularly bilingual ones, would help maintain a low student-to-teacher ratio on each campus, as well as to support the Homebound Academy and Remote Conferencing programs, according to the district.
“The market analysis [for substitute teachers] was at $12 and ours was at $10 and some odd change,” Medina said. “If we do make a change, I would recommend that we move to that market. We cost that out at approximately $29,000 to be able to do that.”
In addition, the administration recommended a onetime benefit of up to 10 paid leave days to those employees who contract COVID-19 and are required to quarantine or are required to quarantine as part of the district’s contact tracing safety protocol. The leave would remain available through June 30, 2022, and be made retroactive to July 1, 2021.
“Future market analysis and benchmarks will reflect that Hays CISD continues to offer compensation at market which enhances our ability to recruit and retain valued employees as well as compete with local peer districts,” Medina said, if administration recommendations are approved.
