Edinburg school board OK’s partial compensation package

Continuing to look at a positive enrollment outlook, the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees approved Tuesday a partial compensation package for employees, though the board still has to approve a budget this summer and may discuss calling for a tax rate election during that process.

The graduated package includes five different salary increase amounts for teachers based on years of experience, ranging from a 1% increase for teachers with up to four years of experience to 4% for teachers with 20 or more years of experience.

It sets the starting salary for teachers, nurses and librarians at $57,250 and puts the starting pay for bus drivers at $19 an hour.

The district says the plan addresses about 2,600 employees, leaving some 2,300 employees to be addressed before the final budget is approved later this summer.

Superintendent Mario Salinas told The Monitor Friday that the board decided to approve that partial plan early (not its usual process) largely to send a message to teachers.

“We wanted the teachers to not speculate. We didn’t want them to wait the whole summer to know what their raises were gonna be,” he said.

According to Salinas, the district has about 100 days operating expenses in its fund balance, a healthy excess over the 75 days the state requires it to maintain. He told the board Tuesday that avoiding dipping into that fund balance is critical, and something the compensation package avoids.

“Before you know it, the savings account is going to disappear. That’s what happens when we dip into the fund balance to pay wages. In this budget, we don’t have to go to the fund balance as a result of the management of the funds that we do have,” he said.

As for the remaining 2,300 or so employees, which include categories like administrators, custodians and cafeteria staff, Salinas says he tentatively anticipates the district being able to approve 2% increases, assuming it receives no unexpected additional funding from the state that could boost that figure.

The compensation package approved Tuesday was more aggressive than recommendations made by the Texas Association of School Boards at a board workshop earlier in June.

Trustees at that meeting were generally more optimistic about enrollment outlooks, and associated funds, at that meeting.

Other factors aside, Edinburg CISD is likely in the best long-term financial position of any traditional school district in Hidalgo County, simply because its borders cut north of every other district and contain the most area by far.

Basically put, it’s positioned to grow so long as development moves north. Other districts aren’t.

“No one’s ever gonna be able to catch up to us because we have land. Land is houses. Houses is tax money. Houses is kids. Everybody else is landlocked,” Trustee Xavier Salinas said.

Trustee Louie Alamia said the district is in a position where it needs to start comparing itself to districts statewide, like San Antonio and Austin, rather than just Rio Grande Valley districts. Trustees Salinas said he expects Edinburg CISD to grow larger than Brownsville ISD — the largest in the Valley — in as little as a year.

Enrollment does not always necessarily equate to the funds. The state funds districts based on average daily attendance rather than strict enrollment, meaning the money districts actually rake in based on students is below — sometimes significantly — what their overall enrollment would imply.

According to the Texas Education Agency, Edinburg CISD’s enrollment stood at about 34,000 as of the middle of the 2022-2023 school year. Superintendent Salinas says the district estimates an attendance rate of about 92%.

Attorney Kevin O’Hanlon cautioned trustees against conflating enrollment and ADA at that workshop. Board President Carmen Gonzalez said she viewed a hefty teacher compensation package as a way to boost attendance.

“But our teachers are gonna be so happy they’re gonna make sure the kids come to school,” she said.

Superintendent Salinas says administration is ultimately continuing to estimate conservatively, although he agrees that the outlook is good.

“I don’t want to bite more than we can chew. They’re optimistic, and we’ll probably hit those numbers, but I prefer to be conservative,” he said.

Despite the rosy financial outlook, Superintendent Salinas proposed last month considering a tax rate election that he said is justified by reduced income caused by tax compression.

A TRE essentially lets districts ask voters to approve their tax rates moving down less than they would otherwise.

McAllen ISD is currently considering one, and both Salinas and McAllen Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez said they expect them to be considered by many districts this summer.

“I think it’s something that we need to consider. It’s good, good and good: good for the taxpayer, good for our staff, good for our district, in my opinion,” Salinas told the board in June.

According to Salinas, the district is expecting its tax rate to decrease by about 12 pennies through compression. He said the district is eyeing a tax ratification election that would ask voters to OK that rate moving down only to 9 pennies, which would bring in an extra almost $7 million annually for the district.

“And that’s a lot. We rely on taxes to fund our school and our compensation packages,” he said Friday.