Our school district, in my opinion is very unique. Before discussing teacher salaries, I will tell you a little about the district and the teachers that work here. We are a small, 1A district that lies between the DFW metroplex and Waco from north to south and between Corsicana and Hillsboro from east to west. Our teachers could work in any of the cities mentioned and make more money. We have teachers that were born in this area and remained here as well as teachers that moved in or that commute from the cities to our district. All this is said to make the point that our school is a good place to work and salaries are not the only consideration.
In my school district salaries account for $2,681,475., which is 72.32% of our total budget. This percentage is slightly lower than the teachers’ salaries in surrounding, comparable districts. The difference is negligible and it seems that it makes little difference as we continually have quality teachers seeking jobs at our school which also has a low turnover rate. We are able to retain great teachers, many of which are hometown people that have children in our district.
A five percent salary increase for all personnel would align salaries with those of similar districts. It would increase teacher morale and possibly attract a greater number of teachers to our district. The negative effects of an increase such as this would far outweigh the positive. At this critical time of funding issues, the raise would not be seen favorably by taxpayers of our district. The general public would see this as an extravagance when we are limiting expenditures in so many other areas. Our budget could not support the increase as we have had a decrease in revenue and the only area to get this funding would be the fund balance which is stressed as it is. An across the board raise will need to be postponed until target revenue is raised either through state funds or an increase in ad valorem taxes.
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