What’s happening?
The district will provide a 2% general pay increase, or GPI, as well as equity adjustments. The total cost will be a little over $3.9 million, Superintendent Larry Berger said at the May 14 meeting.
Beginning teacher salaries at PISD will increase from $60,500 to $62,700, and the control point, or the maximum base pay, for teachers and librarians will be just under $66,700, according to district documents.
PISD administration said they believe now is a good time for salary increases due to the district's “current financial state and successful passing of both the November 2023 [voter-approval tax rate election] and May 2024 bond propositions,” according to district agenda documents.
What else?
According to district documents, PISD administration will offer additional pay grade adjustments for the following positions throughout the district:
- Auxiliary positions, focusing on food service employees, totaling $48,205
- Instructional support positions, focusing on Pearland’s Essential and Academic Readiness Skills program as well as employees within the district’s Preschool Programs for Students with Disabilities program, totaling $230,541
- Teacher positions, focusing on teachers with six to nine and 14-35 years of experience, totaling $383,396
- Other positions, which are unspecified, totaling $253,413
The exact pay increase for all departments was not immediately available.
What they said
Sundie Dahlkamp, human resources and communications executive director for PISD, said at the meeting pay adjustments can take on two forms.
The first is adjusting pay grades based on experience levels and qualifications, she said. The second is shifting the pay range for an entire department to fit into the private-sector market.
She said the district is taking on both types of adjustments, as they will be shifting pay ranges for all departments throughout the district, as well as offering specific increases dependent on experience and qualifications.
“We’re getting to touch every single piece of compensation all at one time,” Dahlkamp said at the meeting. “The 2% [pay increase] combined with the two different forms of equity [increases] really kind of allows us to touch every employee in a very unique way to their position.”
While board trustee Kris Schoeffler is happy to approve of the pay increase, he said he wishes he could offer more for teachers in PISD.
“I would rather see more than 2%,” Schoeffler said at the meeting. “I think we’re kind of hamstrung. We had a $33 billion excess in the state of Texas in tax revenues. We had multiple special sessions at the state level that focused on education, and we haven’t had an increase in our allocation in five years. It feels like public school funding has been held hostage to an extent.”
