Current situation
Rene Barajas, NISD’s deputy superintendent for business and finance, briefed the school board April 23 about developing the district’s next fiscal year budget.
Barajas said NISD officials hope to adopt some type of pay increase in spite of a trend of decreasing public school funding from the state and COVID-19 pandemic relief funds being exhausted.
NISD officials approved a $46.1 million compensation package for FY 2023-24, an increase from the $23.4 million pay package adopted for FY 2022-23.
Barajas said he and fellow administrators understand district employees want some type of pay hike. Trustees in March rejected a grievance from the Northside American Federation of Teachers, the NISD teachers union, over district leaders’ previous decision not to approve raises for select support and classified employees.
NISD administrators are now mulling three general pay increase scenarios for FY 2024-25, using average percentages of compensation for various groups of employees.
Barajas said a 1% pay hike could have an $8.4 million impact on the district’s general—or daily operational—fund and two other funds. This would grow the projected budget shortfall to $91.7 million.
A 1.5% pay increase could have a $12.6 million impact on three district funds and grow the budget shortfall to $95.6 million, Barajas said. A 2% pay increase could have a $16.9 million impact on three district funds and grow the shortfall to $99.5 million.
Barajas said NISD is among the most competitive San Antonio-area school districts—alongside Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD and East Central ISD—in terms of average teacher pay, especially for the more experience a teacher has.
Dig deeper
Barajas said while it is far from ideal, NISD can function with the projected budget shortfall levels in FY 2024-25, but NISD—and all other Texas public school districts—must see some sort of financial relief from the Texas Legislature in its next regular session in 2025. Otherwise, Barajas said major cuts would be on the table.
“If there’s not significant legislative support for fully funding education, there’s going to be drastic changes both with programs and personnel going into fiscal years [2025-26] and [2026-27],” Barajas said.
Additionally, Barajas said NISD administrators are considering maintaining the interest and sinking—or tax debt—portion of the district’s total property tax rate at $0.3355 per $100 valuation.
However, it is unclear what the daily maintenance and operation part of the tax rate—presently $0.6762—will be next fiscal year.
NISD leaders are expected to finalize a FY 2024-25 budget by the start of the next academic year.
