What you need to know
Teachers in PISD will be receiving a one-time payment that will amount to a 2% raise in their pay in mid-December, according to district documents.
Those checks after taxes will come out to around $970 on average, Superintendent Larry Berger said at the meeting.
The same will be the case for administrative staff as well, but their check will amount to a 1% raise, according to district documents.
While the pay raise will be a one-time check in the 2023-24 school year, that additional money will be reflected in teacher’s base pay starting next school year, Berger said. That means teachers will have what amounts to a 4% pay raise in each check starting next year.
How we got here
Just weeks after the PISD board approved a 2% pay raise in June, the board came back and approved another possible raise that they tied to either the results of a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, or action by the state to increase public school funding.
The district’s VATRE was approved by voters on Nov. 7, according to unofficial election results. It will add about $11.2 million to the district’s revenue for its fiscal year 2023-24 budget, which will help close a $12.7 million shortfall.
Quote of note
Trustee Kris Schoeffler in his comments brought up the uncertainty surrounding the original decision to tie a future pay raise to the VATRE back in June, saying there was a question of if the board had the right to do so.
“I think with the results that we saw ... the people that voted said, ‘Absolutely. We love what our teachers are doing. We love what the school district is doing,’” Schoeffler said. “We’re not perfect. There’s always warts, but it’s overall a wonderful product we’re turning out.”
Also on the agenda
The PISD board also approved incentive pay for teachers based on student performance in advanced placement programs and career and technology education, according to district material.
