The San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees recently approved raises for some district employees and tabled action on other raises pending more budget planning in anticipation of action that may be taken by the Texas legislature.
The board, during its Monday meeting, voted to raise salaries for some classified employees by 3% and some professionals by 2%. The board put off making decisions on other staff salary increases and pay rates until a later date.
Chief of Human Resources Dale Mitchell, Director of State and Federal Programs Mike Doyle and Executive Director of Human Resources Stephanie Munoz came before the board to discuss budget planning with respect to salaries. Their presentation included outlining projections of costs of salary increases based on a series of proposed staff raise models.
According to Doyle, the projected revenue for SMCISD at the end of the current school year is between $79 to $81 million, and the early projection for the 2023-2024 school year is likely to top out at between $80 to $81.5 million.
Doyle said revenue is likely to be on the high side of the projection due to a number of factors. Doyle said he has received the certified property value estimates which show a 15% to 17% increase over present value. This will increase the recapture amount that the district will have to pay the state. Doyle said he had made this part of the revenue projection.
“Anytime the basic allotment is adjusted, there’s certain percentages of that adjustment that have to go toward salary increases– 30% of total gain,” he said. Of that 30%, “75 percent of that total gain must go toward teachers, librarians counselors and nurses. 25% of that must go to increase compensation for all other fulltime district employees,” Doyle said.
There is a bill before the Texas Legislature that if it were to pass would increase the basic allotment from $6,160 to $6,250, Doyle explained.
“This is a figure that is in House Bill 100 which has moved from the House to the Senate. There’s still some debate,” Doyle said. If the bill passes, the total gain would be approximately $2,868,540 which translates to $645,430 for salary increases for teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses, and $212,143 for all other staff.
SMCISD has a system in place for ensuring that employee pay remains competitive with other school districts to increase hiring the best candidates and maintaining employee retention. “Every year we bring all of our pay grades to the board for approval,” Munoz said. “We work with [the] Texas Association of School Boards each year to look at maintenance, and what we need to fix, if anything, on our pay grades. Are we competitive within our market?”
This means that annually each staff position is reviewed by comparing it to market peers.
“We have a large number of districts to whom we compare, however, we tend to look closely at Seguin and New Braunfels, as an example. Also, Hays, Lockhart and Comal,” Mitchell said. According to Mitchell, SMCISD is ranked third, above Seguin but less than Comal counties.
“A large number of our teachers come to us as first year teachers or as teachers with less than five years of experience, so of our total teacher pool, we have about 30% who have less than five years of experience. Of those with less than five years of experience 75% are first year teachers,” Mitchell said. Many of the new teachers are coming directly from Texas State, but he said that he would like the district to stay competitive, helping staff retention.
The four teacher compensation models Mitchell proposed for the board’s consideration are: a 2% general pay increase which would bring a starting salary to $53,000; a 3% GPI which would make the starting salary $53,500; a 4% GPI which would make the starting salary $54,000; and a 4% GPI with a longevity adjustment.
Mitchell said the longevity adjustment is an incremental pay increase for each year that staff stays with the district. When a staff member reaches five years with the district, they would receive an annual quarter of a percent raise.
Board members raised their concerns that approving raises before the legislature has acted would be premature.
“So if we made an adjustment tonight, we would then have to make an additional adjustment that totaled $860,000,” SMCISD At-Large Trustee Dr. Mari Salmi said.
Doyle said that any pay increases given before the bill passes would not count toward that $860,000.
“I move that the board approve a general pay increase equal to 3% for classified employees and 2% percent for other professionals and continuation of insurance premiums for ISD staff,” SMCISD Trustee District-1 Miguel Arredondo said. SMCISD Trustee District-3 Mayra Mejia seconded the motion. The motion was approved with two trustees voting against it. Salmi made a motion to table any additional salary discussions for the future which passed unanimously.
With the upcoming May 6 election on the horizon–early voting ended Tuesday, there will be new board members and Arredondo will be off the board.
“I think the board members who will be accountable for this budget should be allowed to vote on it and I think that that’s valuable,” Salmi said. “I think putting it ahead of that election just gives an opportunity for some grandstanding on the way out that I’m not in favor of.”
SMCISD Trustee At-Large Anne Halsey said that she was wavering on whether or not the issue should be voted on at that meeting or in the future, but was certain of what pay increase plan she preferred.
“I’m actually in favor of a 4% general pay increase across the board for all of the categories with the longevity plan, and I appreciate staff bringing us that longevity plan. I think that addresses some critical needs that we have in the district.” Halsey said. “We want to continue to make San Marcos a district of destination and distinction for all of those people.”
