The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Board of Trustees voted to give an additional pay increase to all teachers, nurses and librarians by at least $600 at the board’s Aug. 23 meeting and also decided to extend that pay raise to 44 other district employees across a handful of other positions.

Previously, on June 21, the board approved its general operating budget for fiscal year 2021-22 with a 2% midpoint pay increase for all employees included.

The recommendation brought before the board Aug. 23 by district staff was to supplement that pay increase—an increase that was at least $1,250 for teachers, nurses and librarians—with an additional increase of at least $600. The anticipated budget change for that proposal was to have been $850,280.

Trustee Louie Sullins offered an amendment to that proposal, identifying a subgroup of 44 employees in other roles like assistant principals, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and diagnosticians that were left out of the original proposal. With that amendment, which was passed by a 6-1 vote, the net impact to the budget increased to $949,256.

The amended-resolution then passed, again by a 6-1 margin. Trustee Lisa Pardo was the dissenting vote both times, voicing concerns over the long-term financial implications.

“I, as a trustee, do not want to pass something that I'm uncomfortable with,” Pardo said. “We always are conservative. We always give budgets or we always give raises on what we can afford. So that's what I am sticking with.”

The budget GCISD’s board adopted in June anticipated a deficit of about $7.5 million, with almost $188 million in its expected general fund to account for nearly $195 million in expenditures. The vote Aug. 23 will add $949,256 to that total, bringing the anticipated deficit to a nearly $8.5 million—a deficit that may be offset by, among other things, federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding.

Afterward, GCISD Board of Trustees President Jorge Rodríguez said raising pay for staff—especially after the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic—was “the right thing to do.”

“This was a really, really hard year last year,” Rodríguez said.