Brownsville Independent School District (BISD) bus driver Mary A. Hernandez prepares for her bus route Thursday afternoon at BISD’s Bus Barn. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald)
The Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees made it official Thursday afternoon, approving a $478 million budget for the 2022-2023 school year and an employee compensation plan that includes the largest raises in memory for teachers, professional and administrative staff, and classified employees.
Teachers and professional educational staff received a $4,000 across-the-board pay raise, professional administrative staff a 2% pay raise. Classified employees such as bus drivers and food service workers saw their base pay increase to $15 per hour, with a $1 per-hour increase for those already making $15 per hour or more.
The budget was approved on a 7-0 unanimous vote. The vote on the employee compensation plan was 6-1, with Trustee Minerva Pena casting the lone dissenting vote. She said she did so because of some unanswered questions about special education student-to-teacher ratios.
However, she and other BISD trustees praised the budget process, progress made in right-sizing the district and bringing BISD salaries up to par with other Rio Grande Valley districts.
The board adopted the budget after a public hearing at a special called board meeting. The district is required by law to adopt a balanced budget before July 1, the beginning of the district’s fiscal year.
BISD is projected to receive more than $408 million in state and local revenue this year and over $59 million from federal programs.
The employee compensation plan that the board approved included:
>>$53,000 starting teaching pay, with an 8.2% pay increase with one year experience;
>> $4,000 pay increase for teachers, librarians, counselors, and similar pay groups;
>> 2% pay increase for non-teaching professionals;
>> $15 per-hour base pay for classified employees such as bus drivers, food service workers and janitors;
>>$15 per-hour base pay for part-time temporary classified employees;
>>$1 per-hour pay increase for para-professionals and classified employees already making $15 per hour or more;
>>$15 per hour starting pay for para-professionals and classified employees;
>> $500 stipend for all custodians, including food services; and increases in stipends for all level special education teachers.
Adjustments were also made for all employees to be at least 90% or higher of market value according to surveys done by the Texas Association of School Boards.
The budget also included a $1,500 retention stipend for all full-time and part-time employees, which was distributed on June 10.
“We still have work to do adjusting the compensation plan as we go through the school year,” Budget Committee Chairwoman Prisci Roca Tipton said, adding that no employee compensation plan is perfect, but that this one was as close as possible to that goal post-pandemic.
Board Secretary Denise Garza thanked the employee associations Brownsville Educators Stand Together, BEST, the Association of Brownsville Educators, AOBE, and the Texas Valley Educators Association,TVEA, as having played a key role in the budget process.
