The board voted unanimously to approve the adjustments during the consent agenda portion of its May 16 meeting. According to agenda documents, starting in the 2022-23 school year, the district will increase the starting teacher pay by $1,000, from $58,500 to $59,500.
In addition, teachers will receive a $500 step for increasing their years of experience by one year, according to agenda documents. The proposed adjustments for teachers will equate to an anticipated cost of $8 million.
That means that starting teachers would have a yearly salary of $59,500, while teachers with 40 years of experience would have a yearly salary of $80,000.
Meanwhile, the district will spend $5 million out of its general fund on nonteacher compensation adjustments, with an additional $600,000 in funding coming from both the child nutrition and extended learning funds, according to agenda documents.
“The recommendations to the nonteacher pay structure will ensure a competitive compensation package that allows the district to attract and retain highly qualified staff,” district officials wrote in the recommendation.
The compensation adjustments come as the district faces a nearly $47 million shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year 2022-23 budget, according to projections from district officials. In that budget, salaries and benefits represent $680 million, or 88% of FBISD’s general fund, which sits at a total of $768 million.
The 2022-23 salary adjustments also come after the board of trustees approved compensation adjustments for newly hired teachers with more than 25 years of experience. Starting with May 31 paychecks, the district procedure—to base the employee’s starting salary on Step 25 of the new-hire teacher pay scale regardless of their years of experience—will be adjusted so that new hires are paid based on their actual years of experience.
