Teacher salaries are a lesson in priorities

AISD is facing a $32 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2015 and must send about

$169.3 million to the state for recapture, also known as "Robin Hood," through which property-rich districts such as AISD are required by law to send money to the state to be redistributed among districts deemed property-poor.

A draft budget presented to the community at meetings in April shows the district plans to maintain the one-time 3 percent salary adjustment it made for teachers in FY2013 and drop the 1.5 percent salary adjustment employees received in FY2014.

AISD will present a final budget to its board of trustees in June. If it wants to remain competitive in terms of recruiting and retaining good teachers, AISD needs a multifaceted long-term budget solution, Conley said.

The state of teacher salaries

AISD hired about 900 teachers last summer, said Dora Fabelo, director of recruiting and staffing for AISD. That's not unusual because of turnover, promotions and new schools opening, she said.

"With a bachelor's [degree], we start you at $43,286, but then [after] five years, that's when we start kind of losing ground a little bit," she said.

The district will continue looking to hire more teachers and is in "grave need" of more bilingual teachers, Fabelo said. AISD offers stipends for bilingual, special education and National Board Certified teachers.

Parent Kay Wagner, president of the Covington Middle School PTA, said she doesn't think AISD's compensation package is enough for teachers, especially those at her child's school in Southwest Austin.

"I really do not believe that AISD has kept up with the cost of living," she said.

Much of Covington's student population is economically disadvantaged, but Covington is not considered part of Title I, a federal program that provides financial assistance to local educational agencies and schools with high numbers or percentages of children from low-income families. Covington therefore does not get Title I funds for programs, and teachers have gone the extra mile in taking on additional roles and working long hours to support students, she said.

"Our teachers tutor during their lunch time. They put in an inordinate amount of personal time for the well-being of the students," Wagner said. "I don't believe that our teachers are compensated enough for what they're put through on a day-to-day basis. I've watched our teachers make the absolute most of the budget that the school is given plus the teachers at our school are [paying for supplies] out of pocket quite a bit, and I know a lot of them cannot afford it."

Seeking change

Crockett High School teacher David Dupont, who teaches policy and constitutional law and coaches soccer, said in the 17 years he has worked for AISD, teacher salaries have risen slower than the cost of living.

He pointed out that AISD does what it can within the confines of economic difficulty, offering health insurance and stipends for training. Teachers also get an extended number of non-contract days that most people don't have. He said the problem with teacher salaries extends somewhat beyond AISD's control.

"I think part of the solution would be to reform the tax structure of the state and to develop an income tax system where they treat every child across the state equally as opposed to property-wealthy districts having more advantages and then being punished with recapture," he said.

There are three ways a school district can get new revenue to help support teacher salaries, Conley said: changing legislation, increasing the district's enrollment or average daily attendance, or raising the tax rate with a tax ratification election, or TRE. Legislation changing is unlikely, so AISD needs to consider a TRE, Conley said.

Wagner said she isn't sure if she would support a TRE in 2015.

"I would really like to see the proposal first," she said. The district is on the right track, but she would like to see some adjustments made across the board in terms of how money is managed, she said.

Parent Rick Potter said he is in favor of anything that would boost teacher salaries.

Potter has four children who have attended or are currently attending Casis Elementary School, O Henry Middle School and Austin High School. He said one of his greatest concerns since he first became involved with the district in 1997 has been retaining staff, particularly in athletics.

"We were losing coaches and athletic coordinators and trainers that were being constantly hired away from AISD from outlying districts not only in Central Texas but around the state," he said.

He cited research showing higher graduation rates for children involved in athletics.

"Part of it is facilities, but part of it is we need to pay these teachers and coaches commensurate with the marketplace," he said.

Why teachers stay

Austin's appeal as a city, innovative AISD programs and benefits such as Social Security are among the reasons teachers remain with the district, Fabelo said.

AISD offers REACH, a program through which teachers can receive stipends based on their students' performance, Fabelo said.

"The REACH Program has really helped us, but the REACH program is only in certain schools, and they're hard-to-staff schools," she said.

Fabelo, a former principal and teacher who has worked for AISD for about 30 years, said the draw of teaching is obviously not the money—it's helping children learn.

"[Teaching] is something that is just so rewarding," she said. "When I get those invitations to college graduations or master's [degree] graduations from my students it's all worth it."