The Northside Board of Trustees has approved a 4 percent across-the-board pay raise for employees, including teachers and administrators.
That means a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no experience will start at $45,250; a teacher with a master's degree and no experience will start at $46,350. A complete breakdown of the salary schedule is available on
the NISD Human Resources web site.
Though this year's raise is lower than last year's 5 percent raise, Board President Katie Reed said she was pleased with the increase, considering the state Legislature is providing the same amount of operational funding for the 2008-09 school year as it did for the 2007-08 school year.
"Fortunately, we've made some tough decisions in the past to put us in a stable financial position this year," Reed said. "I'm glad that we're able to give a good raise to our teachers and our employees even though our funding from the state is stagnant."
In 2003 and 2004, salaries were frozen for one year, block scheduling was ended in secondary schools, and other cuts were made to save $40 million. Today, those cuts represent $180 million in savings, and currently, Northside is the only school district in San Antonio that has not accessed any of the four pennies on its tax rate that is authorized by the Legislature.
Unfortunately, under the current finance system, NISD is receiving the same amount of money per student this year as it did last year. No provisions have been made for inflation, salary increases, or the unfunded mandates passed by the Legislature last year.
"Unless the Legislature fixes our current school funding system, I'm not sure how much longer our financial stability will continue," Superintendent John Folks said. "We are very fortunate that we're able to offer all our employees a 4 percent raise this year."
Altogether, the pay raises will cost the District an additional $34.4 million, which includes $2.1 million to cover increasing health insurance costs.
The Board is scheduled to approve the 2008-09 budget and tax rate at its Aug. 26 meeting.
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