District documents show under the proposed plan, teachers and librarians would receive a 4% pay increase, and administrative and operational support roles would receive a 3% pay increase. Instructional support, technology, instructional and business exempt, and district police would also receive a 2% general pay increase for the 2022-23 school year.
With the teacher and librarian pay increase, starting salaries would increase to $52,600 with pay for years one to seven and 21-23 adjusted, according to district documents. Other pay increases would be implemented using recommendations from the Texas Association of School Boards to improve "market competitiveness" and equity among district staff.
This comes after the board approved immediate compensation increases March 31 for some support staff positions, which went into effect April 1.
Ahead of the vote, some trustees expressed their thoughts on the pay increases. Place 6 Trustee Tiffanie Harrison stated she felt these employees deserved more in the future than the increase approved.
"I just want to say we're not done yet," Harrison said. "This is the market-rate adjustment to get us to where we should have been, which is still not enough."
Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez clarified earlier in the night that the March 31 amendment will not preclude those employees from receiving any increases considered for fiscal year 2022-23.
The compensation increases are funded by $470,000 in funds previously budgeted for positions that went unfilled, according to RRISD Chief Financial Officer Dennis Covington.
Some public commenters at the March 31 meeting characterized the pay increases as "a start" and asked that the board factor in years of service and the cost of health benefits for employees with family members on their insurance plans. The district covers the cost of health coverage for its employees but not for any additional family members, which some speakers have described at previous meetings as a barrier to affordability.
"If you have an employee in the district who has to put their family on their insurance, that's a bigger chunk of money that's coming out of what they're taking home," RRISD employee Nichole Nunnally said. "So the gross and the net are going to be grossly different."
