Pflugerville Educators Association cites discrepancies in pay rates, requests district establish competitive salaries
Pflugerville ISD is working to address uneven pay rates for veteran and new district teachers and to make its pay scale competitive with surrounding districts.
August Plock, a Pflugerville High School teacher and president of the Pflugerville Educators Association—the district's teachers union—said he noticed last year a disparity in his salary in comparison to what teachers with the same amount of experience were being paid in surrounding school districts. After meeting with PISD's human resources department, Plock said he discovered not only was his salary lagging in comparison to other districts, but also in comparison to recently hired teachers within Pflugerville.
"My initial reason why I went [to meet with human resources] was to discuss why teachers in PISD were being paid anywhere from $2,500–$3,000 less than ... school districts [surrounding] PISD," Plock said. "At this meeting, I found out that teachers brand new to the district with the same years of experience were actually being paid a [salary competitive with other districts], but teachers who have been with the district are being paid less [than new hires]."
Plock attributes the discrepancies to the district stopping salary schedules from being readily available approximately three years ago—though employees can still view the schedule by making an appointment with the district's human resources department. Typically teachers are paid on a schedule that increases salaries annually based on experience, but Plock said the district ended the schedules and instead of annual raises has given teachers two $500 pay increases during the past three years. As a result, a teacher who is hired one year could make less than a teacher with the same experience who is hired the year after.
