Austin district's employees to get at least 6% raise

Austin school district teachers, counselors and librarians who have more than five years of experience will get a 7% bump in pay starting in August, and all other employees will receive 6% across-the-board raises. All told, it's thought to be the district’s largest single-year compensation increase.

Beyond the 6% raise, bilingual teachers will receive an additional $1,000, bringing their annual stipends to $3,500. Special education teachers will receive an additional $500, bringing their yearly stipends to $1,500.

Tenured bus drivers, administrative assistants and some other hourly employees in the district will see pay increases beyond the 6% hike.

Details about the pay increases were announced Thursday at Govalle Elementary School in East Austin during a media briefing involving school district officials and Education Austin leaders.

“I’m really proud of our compensation, because our teachers and staff members work hard and they deserve it,” Superintendent Paul Cruz said. “They are the ones who are working with our students every single day.”

The move comes after weeks of lobbying by the district’s largest labor group, Education Austin, which had demanded 10% salary increases. While the base salaries aren’t increasing that much, total compensation, which includes contributions to the statewide teacher pension fund, comes close to 10% on average, district officials said. The pay and benefit increases are estimated to cost the district an additional $48.6 million during the 2019-20 school year.

"This is the most robust and powerful compensation package in the 21 years I’ve been in this district," said Ken Zarifis, president of Education Austin. "I can’t begin to tell you how proud we are of this work. This was a fight for every student who comes into this district. Because you invest in the people who change their lives."

The average teacher salary in the Austin district is $51,454, and district officials expect take-home pay to increase by more than $2,000 with the changes. The district has 11,507 employees, including 3,422 teachers who have more than five years of experience.

Instead of pushing for increases to the minimum wage and starting hourly wage paid to Austin district employees, Education Austin lobbied for better compensation for employees who had been with the district for years. As the Austin district faces increased competition for employees, district officials point out that many neighboring school districts don't offer paid vacation like Austin does.

News of the pay increases comes after Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed HB 3, an $11.5 billion school finance bill, into law. The landmark legislation to reform school finance will pump $6.5 billion more into classrooms and into school employee pay raises, and it directs an additional $5 billion to property tax relief.

Because the state will increase its share of public education funding, the Austin district’s recapture payment, required by the state from property-wealthy school districts to help subsidize districts with little property wealth, will drop. The Austin school district's recapture payment, which will fall by $193 million in 2019-20, is now estimated to be $588.3 million.

In total, the Austin district estimates it will pocket an additional $88 million as a result of the legislative changes, based on a calculation that includes the recapture savings. The infusion of the HB 3 money will drop the district's deficit, previously estimated to be about $60 million over the next two years, to about $5 million. Much of the additional funds will go toward the pay raises, which Cruz said wouldn't be possible without the new state money.

The pay raises, as well as the state funding increase, will be rolled into the district's overall budget of $1.6 billion, which school board members are slated to vote upon Monday. Of that money, minus recapture, the district's 2019-20 school year operating expenditures total $813.8 million.

It could be months, though, before Austin and other local school districts receive firm numbers from the state regarding the exact allocations they will receive. More than a week ago, district staff members proposed an idea to the school board of possibly waiting until August to determine raises, but Cruz told trustees the delay could cost the district employees.

“Right now we’re recruiting, and staff members are making decisions on whether to stay or not,” Cruz said. “These are important decisions for them. They have families so they don’t make these decisions independently. I wanted to make sure we kept our best teachers and recruit strong staff members. We can’t wait.”

The math behind the district's raisesOn Thursday, the Austin school district announced that employees will receive additional compensation of $48.6 million this coming school year. Here's a breakdown of the raises:

• 7% increase for teachers with more than 5 years experience = $13.78 million

• 6% across-the-board boost for all other employees = $22.73 million

• 1.5% increase overall in contributions to the Teacher Retirement System = $7.81 million

• Increase of $1,000 for each bilingual educator stipend = $1.12 million

• Increase of $500 for each special education educator stipend = $500,000

• Pay increases for tenured administrative assistants, bus drivers and some manual trade workers = $2.65 million

Total: $48.6 million