Pflugerville ISD trustees approve minimum 3% pay increase for all staff

When Pflugerville ISD officials set compensation rate increases for its faculty and staff last year, the district was able to utilize a multibillion state funding package to implement a 6.7% pay hike for teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors and licensed professionals.

At the time, the increase cost the district an estimated $10 million. House Bill 3, the state funding measure passed by the 86th Texas Legislature, provided the school district with a little more than $12 million in supplemental funds.

With the school district facing fundamentally different funding circumstances this year, the PfISD board of trustees voted March 12 to increase teacher and faculty by at least 3% across the board for the 2020-21 school year. District documents show this will account for $6.9 million of next year’s budget.

“We feel that with a 3% raise for teachers, that would give us a very competitive pay rate,” said Ed Ramos, the chief operating officer for PfISD.

According to district documents, PfISD raised its starting pay for teachers to $51,500.

In its new compensation package, PfISD additionally included stipends for bilingual teachers, special education teachers, math and science instructors and computer science teachers.

PfISD’s hourly employees were included in next school year’s compensation increases. Starting pay for special education assistants will increase by at least $3 per hour up to $16.09 per hour, a 16.76% increase from the previous pay schedule, according to the school district.

Some education assistants will see starting pay increase to $17.86 per hour, a 29.06% increase, district documents show.

Starting pay for the district’s social workers will increase by 6.8% over the previous pay schedule—up to $51,785.

Vernagene Mott, president of the PfISD board of trustees, said before the vote on the pay increase that the school district’s budget survey for the upcoming year is less clear than it has been in years past, partly in due to potentially reduced property tax collections the district relies on for its annual budget.

The Travis Central Appraisal District has announced it will not appraise residential properties this year after the Austin Board of Realtors sent the district a cease-and-desist order in May prohibiting use of its market data in the appraisal process.

“I see a lot of uncertainty—more in this year than we have in the past,” Mott said March 12. “We’re all optimistic and hopeful, but we don’t know.”