In a 4-2 votes on July 31, the Judson ISD board of trustees approved $8.24 million in employee raises, complying with the passage of House Bill 2 along with giving all district employees—with the exceptions of administrators and District of Innovation teachers—not under HB 2 mandates a 1.5% midpoint salary raise.
Board President Monica Ryan and Board Vice President Amanda Poteet were the two dissenting votes, while trustee Lesley Lee abstained her vote.
How we got here
HB 2, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 4, provides an allotment for pay raises to classroom teachers with at least three years of experience in districts with over 5,000 students, such as Judson ISD.
Under the mandate, classroom teachers with three to four years of experience receive a raise of $2,500, while those with five or more years of experience receive a $5,000 raise.
However, the bill uses the Texas Education Code definition of “classroom teacher” to determine which employees receive raises. The education code defines classroom teacher as an educator who “teaches in an academic instructional setting or a career and technology instructional setting” for at least four hours a day on average.
This language leaves out employees like nurses, librarians, counselors and other non-administrative staff; as well as classroom teachers between 0-2 years of experience.
According to a presentation by district staff, 1,370 district classroom teachers are covered under HB 2 mandates, while over 1,600 district employees fall outside the legislation. The state’s teacher retention allotment for the 1,370 receiving the $2,500 or $5,000 raise amounts to $6.38 million. The state also provided the district $829,506 of a staff support retention allotment. The action will cost a total of $1.02 million out of the district’s local fund balance.
The options
The board chose giving employees not impacted by HB 2 a 1.5% salary raise at midpoint, a slight increase from district staff's recommendation of a 1.25% raise. A 2% midpoint salary raise was also considered.
Other district staff submitted options for those not under HB 2 which included:
- Giving new nurses, counselors, librarians and other support staff a $2,300 raise, existing employees in those positions a $2,500 raise, all new teachers a $2,300 raise and teachers with 1-2 years of experience a $2,500 raise
- Giving teachers with 0-2 years of experience plus the aforementioned staff a 1.25%, 1.5% or 2% midpoint raise
Ryan also submitted an option that would have given a $2,300 raise for new teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians only, a $2,500 raise for those positions with 1-4 years of experience and a $5,000 raise to those positions with 5 or more years of experience.
Ryan said that in looking where to allocate, she is looking at attracting certified teachers and employees “directly impacting academics.” first.
What the board is saying
Superintendent Milton Fields said the state legislature was prioritizing employees that are seen in the classroom, and said that those not covered under HB 2 are also working with students on a regular basis.
“I would like to see them receive that same level of support as well, but that’s not what the state did. The state didn’t provide that [allotment] for that group,” Fields said.
Trustee Suzanne Kenoyer said HB 2 took the choice of how to spend money on salary raises out of their hands.
“What they’re saying is that teachers are more valuable than anybody else. I was a teacher, teachers are valuable, but teacher’s can’t do the work of educating students alone. We need every single employee, and what this [legislation] says is that [the legislature] doesn’t value them,” Kenoyer said.
Trustee José Macias Jr. said any decision would not make anyone happy, but he supports the 1.5% midpoint raise for those not impacted by HB 2 because it includes paraprofessionals and academic trainers.
Next steps
District staff will begin calculating what the dollar amount raises would be for each position.