Georgetown ISD leaders discussed possible strategies to provide teachers with pay raises if the district’s voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, fails.
Increasing class sizes, reducing field trips and replacing GISD’s after-school care partnership with the YMCA were among the strategies GISD leaders discussed during a Sept. 8 board workshop.
What are the options?
The cost of providing teachers with $1,000 pay raises is about $1.2 million, GISD Superintendent Devin Padavil said during the workshop. This figure does not include the cost of providing other district employees—like custodians or administrators—with compensation increases.
During the district’s most recent board workshop, GISD leaders explored several options to raise revenue for compensation increases if the VATRE fails, including:
Increasing class sizes
Replacing the district’s partnership with the YMCA for after-school care with an in-house alternative
Reducing student programming, such as theater, sports and other extracurriculars
Reducing travel, which includes field trips and trips for teacher development
Reducing non-classroom staff
Reducing funding for teacher supplies and training
Increasing school meal prices by $1
While none of these options have been formally adopted by the district, Padavil said these are strategies district staff would present if the VATRE fails and the board remained interested in providing pay increases for teachers.
“This is not for show,” Padavil said. “None of this is blustering.”
Diving in deeper
District leaders raised several concerns and questions, with much of the conversation centering on replacing the district’s partnership with the YMCA, increasing class sizes and cutting funding for teacher supplies.
Of the roughly 375 children enrolled in the YMCA’s after-school care program, about 100 receive financial assistance to participate, according to GISD Chief Financial Officer Clay Goehring. These children receive funding from outside sources, which the district does not have clear plans at the moment to incorporate into its proposed takeover of after-school programs.
Replacing the program could affect vulnerable families that rely on it for accessible childcare, such as single parents, GISD board trustee Laura Kincheloe said.
Goehring added that projections indicate that the district would need to hire 27 employees or have 27 existing employees stay four hours after school to provide childcare if the district were to replace the YMCA’s program.
Padavil said that through his experience with another district that undertook a similar program, the quality of childcare may not match that of the YMCA’s program.
GISD board trustee Anthony Blankenship also questioned how increasing elementary class sizes would impact the district’s effort to increase Texas Education Agency ratings for low-rated elementary schools.
Increasing class sizes while offering lower pay than neighboring districts could “make it harder” for the district to recruit and retain teachers, fellow trustee Rachel Gallardo noted.
Assessing the need
A recent financial audit of the district revealed that average pay for both GISD teachers and administrators falls below state averages.
“The most important thing we can do for students is have a high-quality teacher in every classroom,” Padavil said during the Sept. 8 board meeting. “The second most important thing we can do is have a strong instructional leader as the administrator. When our pay is not competitive, we have examples of how our principals lost out on strong candidates.”
Padavil said four candidates for administrative positions turned down offers at GISD because other districts provided higher compensation.
Additionally, Padavil said he denied adding a new assistant principal for East View High School.
“We squeezed every position,” he said. “I’ve dreamt of certain positions being able to join our teaching and learning team.”
Padavil said during the Sept. 8 board meeting that the revenue raised by the VATRE would not be used to increase superintendent pay.
The context
The VATRE—which seeks to increase the district’s maintenance and operations tax rate from $0.6931 to $0.7831 per $100 valuation—will appear as “Georgetown Independent School District Proposition A” on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The VATRE will provide the district with an estimated $17.5 million in additional revenues before $9.1 million is sent back to the state as part of recapture.
With the remaining $8.4 million, GISD leaders seek to provide staff with 3% pay raises. For teachers, district leaders state this would translate to a minimum raise of $2,300 while the salary for starting teachers would increase by $2,000 to $59,000.
