Amy Campbell, a human resources and compensation consultant for the Texas Association of School Boards, presented information collected on Eanes’ pay systems during the regular board of trustees meeting March 26 to further these strategies.
Zooming in
Every few years, Eanes ISD contracts with TASB to perform an internal compensation review to examine the job market and provide recommendations for competitive pay practices.
Based on TASB’s findings, Eanes ISD’s average teacher salary—which is surveyed at five-year intervals—is only $545, or 1%, below the local market median salary of $60,067.
According to the data, teacher pay is only $34 below the market median salary at 20 years, but $1,264 below at 15 years.
TASB also compiled information on median pay increases across the state over the last six years. In both 2022 and 2023, Eanes’ 5% median pay increase for teachers, paraprofessionals and administration professionals was higher than the statewide median, and higher than increases given between 2017-21.
“You can see how you’ve kind of tried to get back up there for the following years,” Campbell said.
Eanes is also competitive compared to other districts in the market when it comes to providing additional stipends for teachers who have a master’s degree, a National Board Certification or are a high-needs special education teacher.
However, bilingual stipends in Eanes are about $700 less than the $7,000 median stipend of other districts in the market. Several other districts also provide stipends for secondary math and science teachers, and special education resource teachers, which Eanes does not.
Major takeaways
Based on the data collected, TASB gave the district a few options to consider, including:
- Improve starting salaries.
- Adopt a 2%-3% general pay increase to maintain Eanes’ competitiveness in the market.
- Make adjustments to teacher salaries to provide meaningful pay differences between years of experience.
- Increase stipends for hard-to-fill positions, such as bilingual teachers.
Board President James Spradley said the district needs the state to consider how inflation has changed over the last few years versus how the basic allotment, or how much general revenue funds from the Texas Legislature goes toward school districts, has not.
“I think we’d love to give our staff a much bigger increase than we’re talking about—2 or 3%— and it strikes me that given our budget projections, in order to even give 2 or 3%, we will be borrowing from savings to do that,” Spradley said. “This goes all the way back to the beginning of this meeting and TASB grassroots: the idea that we need our Legislature to step up and help fund us. I personally would be committed to giving as much of that as we can out of anything the state can add to our basic allotment to help pay staff. That’s where the money goes. When the state funds districts, they’re funding people. They’re funding children, and they’re funding staff.”
