Bitter budget decisions are at hand at McAllen ISD.
Heather Kester, a Milam Elementary School fifth grade teacher who’s taught for the district for 26 years, illustrated the need for those decisions to the McAllen ISD board Monday evening. An Ivy League grad with a masters degree, Kester says she’s considering leaving the district over pay.
“My passion is teaching, but I don’t know if I can continue to do this. I have two children to put through college, and the reality is I barely make ends meet as well…I make $39,000 net,” she said. “That’s the reality. And I’m frugal; and fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, the only way I survive is because my mother passed away and I live off a sum of inheritance money that I have to pull from every two years to survive.”
Kester said she does not make a living wage. She says she feels disrespected and unvalued.
“I don’t go on grand vacations. When we go out to eat, we don’t get drinks — because it’s managing money. That’s the reality. And I give my heart and soul to these kids, and they go on to do so well — so well! But I have to make the decision now.”
Kester and employees like her are the reason the district’s board has spent six workshop meetings wrangling over the budget, and the reason the board voted 4-3 against approving a compensation package Monday.
Trustees will return for a workshop and a special meeting before the end of the month to carry on with looking for ways to increase employee compensation, a problem that almost certainly won’t be easy to fix.
The board wasn’t, it appeared, prepared to approve the compensation package in any case. A motion to table the item was retracted before it could be voted on.
The package would have included a minimum salary increase of $1,140 and a $500 one-time holiday pay stipend for all employees.
The board took no action on approving a budget Monday.
Voting down the compensation package, Trustee Sam Saldivar Jr. said, gives administration and the board a little more time to search for practical ways to increase employee compensation.
“It allows the administration 17 days to reevaluate, reassess everything we’ve been saying,” he said. “Taking all those possibilities for us to come back here and discuss it, and figure out what alternative.”
Where will the board decide to find money for pay increases? Your guess is as good as anybody’s.
CFO Cynthia Medrano-Richards said the 2022-2023 budget is already stretched to the limit, and is relying on $5.5 million in ESSER funds to avoid a deficit.
Three strategies emerged in the conversation to achieve that goal: lobbying for funding changes at the state level that will aid the district, putting projects on the chopping block or a Tax Rate Election that would ask voters to increase the maintenance and operations tax rate — if approved — by 4 cents.
The district has relatively little control over the first option. The latter two aren’t likely to prove universally popular.
“The viable way to do it is to go out to the voters for the pennies,” Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez said. “That’s the responsible way to do it so we can sustain it overtime. Dipping into our fund balance is not a best practice, it’s not recommended — it’s like dipping into your savings account for your living expenses. It’s going to catch up to you, you’re going to tap out your savings account and you’re going to be in a bind.”
Ultimately, Gonzalez said, finding additional pay for staff will almost certainly result in canceling projects.
“I want to do all that I can for every teacher, but I just want the community to know that it’s going to come with some difficult decisions,” he said. “And the administration’s up for it. We’re up for it. We’ll take our marching orders and come back. But something’s gotta give, and it’s gonna be projects. We can’t dip into fund balance for raises going forward.”
The board bought itself a little time to solve the problem, but it appears to be far from having a consensus on what to do.
Several trustees came out swinging with ideas to find funds for employees.
Alvarado, who recently came out as a retroactive opponent of plugging $4 million of ESSER funds into Quinta Mazatlan’s expansion project, suggested making that payment in installments. Sofia Peña said the district needed to review whether ESSER funds were spent prudently, and said she would support freezing new athletics funding in favor of teacher pay.
Saldivar suggested considering those four extra M&O tax pennies, while Debbie Crane Aliseda said she felt her budget suggestions hadn’t been taken seriously and the board now finds itself in a time crunch with a lack of options.
It’s a pickle, especially given an apparent demand for increased wages among staff and a decline in trust in leadership suggested by an employee survey.
“For now, it’s imperative that we do something,” Alvarado said. “Our staff — we’re gonna lose them. We have the lowest ratings, superintendent and the board, in a long time. And that’s going to continue if we don’t put our money where our mouth is.”
Trustees clearly felt the pressure. There was no shortage of impassioned remarks. It was also an emotional issue for district employees who spoke at the meeting.
Clarissa Riojas, the McAllen ISD American Federation of Teachers vice president and a teacher, said she felt the board made the right decision in holding off on a compensation package decision.
Riojas said her organization would recommend a thorough review of the district’s budget, including central administration salaries and funds being used for new projects and district initiatives.
“We need to hold them accountable,” she said. “That is one thing that I have been hearing all night.”
