The McAllen Independent School District Board of Trustees approved an employee compensation plan Wednesday, although tough financial decisions for the board likely aren’t over and trustees will consider calling for a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election at a special meeting Thursday.
An effort to find more money to pay employees led to seven budget workshops, weeks of finagling and brass-tacks conversations on where to trim financial fat.
Last week the board voted down a compensation package that would have included a minimum salary increase of $1,140 and a $500 one-time holiday pay stipend for all employees, telling administration to present them with more options.
On Wednesday, trustees picked administration’s recommendation for a plan out of a selection of options presented, raising the figure for that stipend and the minimum increase.
Despite all the time and effort put into it, that compensation plan looks more like an unhappy compromise than a real win.
Two trustees voted against it. The district’s American Federation of Teachers President says it doesn’t do enough for paraprofessionals and that administrators are getting too much money. Some trustees are becoming increasingly vocal about places the district should have been making cuts.
The struggle for pay increases seems more a symptom of a district increasingly feeling a financial pinch.
As Trustee Danny Vela put it, it really didn’t matter which of the four compensation plans the board selected. The funding problem will persist.
“You can pick any one of the four, and we’re still in a pretty tough situation,” he said. “It’s like jumping out of a plane without a parachute, hoping Superman comes by and picks you up. Not sure he’s even in the area.”
“Superman” is likely some statewide funding model change that favors the district — hardly a sure thing — or increased enrollment. The enrollment problem, Vela acknowledged, has been a tough nut to crack.
“Combining either one of those two things with severely cutting our recurring expenditures is going to be the only thing that saves us going into next year’s budget — it’s not this budget we’re talking about; it’s the budget coming up,” he said. “Either there’s gotta be some severe belt tightening or we’re gonna be in a real tough, tough place to be.”
COMPENSATION PLAN
The compensation plan the board approved Wednesday includes a minimum salary increase for teachers and librarians of $1,700.
The minimum entry-level salary for teachers with no experience is $52,150. The plan also places the maximum salary for incoming McAllen ISD teachers with over 20 years of experience elsewhere at $62,630.
Administrative professionals will receive a $1,700 bump in pay, while all other employees will see their salaries increase 3% from their midpoint.
A healthy number of AFT members were in the audience Wednesday.
AFT President Sylvia Tanguma said members would have preferred seeing less increases going to central administrators and more going to teachers and paraprofessionals.
“Why would they not exclude central administration for this time around, at least until we even the playing field for the rest,” she said, “and use that money toward picking up the salary for our auxiliary workers.”
The result of that, Tanguma said, will be what trustees have repeatedly said concerns them: employees going elsewhere.
“If you look at our job openings, there are job openings that are not getting filled,” she said. “Because if you go to Edinburg or La Joya or PSJA, they’re going to pay more than what we are paying.”
POSSIBLE TAX RATE ELECTION
The board will consider one option to rake in additional funding at a special meeting Thursday: a tax hike.
CFO Cynthia Medrano-Richards said the board could call for a Voter Approved Tax-Rate election to be held in November.
“It allows the trustees to seek approval from the community on raising the maintenance and operations tax rate by a possible 4.14 cents,” she said. “That does require approval from the community, a majority approval from the community, in order for us to move forward.”
The district’s current M&O rate is $1.10197 per $100 valuation, Richards said. About 15 years ago, that number was $1.650, she said, half-a-penny below where that potential 4.14 cent increase would put it.
The election proposal is likely to be contentious.
Trustee Sofia Peña said unequivocally that she would oppose it Wednesday, citing national economic conditions and saying the impetus should be on the district’s administration to tighten spending.
“I will not support a tax increase, and if this idea passes, I will buy a T-shirt that says ‘No Taxes” and I will wear it everyday. I promise,” she said.
Trustee Marco Suarez also seemed reticent about the idea, worrying that if voters shot down the proposal it would be a “slap in the face” of educators.
Others on the board seemed more open to the idea. Trustees Debbie Crane Aliseda and Conrado “Ito” Alvarado both said they were conflicted about the idea, but not necessarily opposed.
Trustee Sam Saldivar, who brought up the prospect of a hike last week, said it should require an efficiency audit.
“Because we would have to demonstrate to the community everything we’ve done, everything where we are — that this request is to make sure that we attract and retain qualified teachers to educate their children going into the future, because that’s all it’s going to be for,” he said.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Increasingly, fault lines are appearing on the board about where the district should or should not be spending money.
Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez said last week that dipping into the district’s general fund for pay increases isn’t sustainable and that canceling projects would likely be a necessity going forward.
Investments in innovative projects fueled by ESSER monies increasingly seemed in the crosshairs for those cuts, and the board did nix one relatively low-profile “wired technology project.”
More high-profile investments seem, so far, to be safe.
A $4 million contribution to a major Quinta Mazatlán expansion project that Alvarado has repeatedly said he rejects and encouraged revisiting has not been revisited and remains on the table.
The prospect of cuts prompted a contingent of citizens to express their support for the district’s partnership with IMAS at the meeting, which was promised $2 million in ESSER monies.
No trustees so far appear to have publicly expressed remorse over that specific investment, but Peña did say she is concerned about the long term financial implications of the district’s highly touted partnership with UTRGV to build a collegiate high school.
“$12.5 million going to UTRGV for what is essentially an early college high school…” she said. “We have Achieve Early College High School and I’ve been a champion for Achieve Early College High School at every turn that I can. This project is not…a one time expense.”
Peña said she felt the district needed to focus on more meat and potato funding projects, singling out employee pay and security.
“I want us to stop with the special projects for now,” she said. “We’re jumping into special projects, and we really need to look at the long-term compensation plan.”
