North East ISD trustees on June 20 approved $8 million in pay hikes for the 2022-23 academic year, including raises of varying levels and another one-time retention supplement.

With some employees calling the new pay plan inadequate, school board members said they wish they could advance a more robust compensation program given public concerns about inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic’s lingering economic effects.

But district administrators said NEISD faces many financial unknowns as the school system finishes preparing a budget for the upcoming school year.

“We’re in between a rock and a hard place. We want to do what we can for our teachers, staff, bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers, but it’s also our responsibility to not put our district into jeopardy,” board President Shannon Grona said.

The compensation plan for 2022-2023 includes:

• a 2% raise for teachers and librarians based on the midpoint of their new 2022-23 salary scale;
• a 2% raise for eligible nurses and counselors based on their salary midpoint;
• an increase of the starting salary for teachers and librarians with zero years of experience to $55,300;
• a 1% raise for other administrative and professional employees based on their pay scale midpoint;
• setting maximum starting salary of $64,000 for new-to-district teachers and librarians with 25 years or more experience; and
• a minimum 3% midpoint raise for eligible bus drivers and assistants in bus transportation, food services, special education and instruction.

Human Resources Executive Director Chyla Whitton said the latter is being done to better align these employees’ wages with those of comparable positions elsewhere in the local market.

Whitton also said the district can give a one-time minimum $250 retention supplement, beginning this November, to employees hired on or as of Oct. 1, 2022.

Whitton said money from NEISD’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund allocation will support the new round of retention supplements, adding there is a possible spring supplement if enough ESSER funds are leftover.

Three employees addressed the school board, saying the new pay plan was not enough for many district staffers who are struggling to keep pace with rising costs of living.

Chelsea Sanchez, an English teacher at NEISD’s Academy for Creative Excellence, called for a range of compensation and systematic improvements to help improve educator recruitment and retention.

“We all know raises for more experienced teachers will help. Teachers need smaller class numbers. That means, yes, having to pay high enough to attract new teachers. Teachers and administrators need training in restorative disciplines so that teachers and students can see each other as people at our worst moments,” Sanchez said.

Special education assistant Theresa Heard said employees deserve more compensation and aid contained in NEISD’s new pay program, adding that district workers have worked hard while coping with stresses associated the pandemic.

“Please support these employees; they are the backbone of NEISD,” Heard said.

Bus driver Christina Bass said a raise can do some temporary good, but asked NEISD to address more long-term, comprehensive problems adversely affecting the NEISD workforce.

“Morale is a huge problem. Morale can make or break a district, or a business,” she said.

Before voting on the new compensation plan, trustees did briefly yet informally mull the idea of amending the district staff’s proposal in order to offer more significant pay adjustments.

However, NEISD administrators said they are wary that a record number of property owners protesting their rising valuations across Bexar County could affect the district’s taxable values.

Administrators also voiced uncertainty about NEISD's projected student enrollment, the effect of the voter-approved expansion of the state’s homestead exemption from $25,000 to $40,000, the current economy and the future of state public education finance.

Susie Lackorn, executive director of NEISD’s finance and accounting department, said the Bexar Appraisal District has to date processed about 46,000 appraisal protests, with another 128,000 protests left to settle.

Lackorn said NEISD hopes that BAD settles a significant number of protests and provides the school district with a more solid projection of certified property values by late July. By state law, Texas public school districts must set their property tax rate by the end of each September.

“We still don’t have a clear enough picture of what our property tax collections are going to look like,” Lackorn said.

Board Member David Beyer said NEISD, reluctantly, can currently only do so much in the way of employee pay.

“For the financial stability and sustainability of this district, unless something drastic changes, I’m in a position where I don’t know if I can support anything beyond what’s being proposed at this point, not knowing what’s going to happen next year,” Beyer said.

The NEISD board is scheduled to have a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. June 23 to act on the 2022-23 budget. The meeting will be held at the district central office at 8961 Tesoro Drive. A livestream of the meeting will be available.