EDLD+5342+Week+4+Part+4

Salary

In DISD we have a personnel salary range over $27 million. These salaries make up 78% of our total operating costs for the district. When the legislature made the cuts to the school districts across Texas there were many that removed teachers, nurses, librarians and administrators from their jobs. We did not. Our school board and superintendent made a decision not to panic and remove teachers from the classroom. This dedication to the students of Dayton ISD brought a cost to the districts fund balance of over $1 million. Will be able to take this same hit this coming year? The simple answer is no. Our district will have to look at making cuts at different places within the district. I know for a fact that if we have a teacher leave we will more than likely have to absorb that position. At Dayton High School we removed the teaming period for our teachers in grades 10-12 for this school year to help with those spots we were not able to fill. We are looking at doing some different schedules to allow for more teacher coverage and will look at differentiated staffing in order to make sure we have proper coverage for our core classes.

5% Pay Increase If we provide a 5% salary increase to Dayton ISD employees we are looking at an increase of $1.35 million. This money spent will not be a onetime expenditure as this increase will have to be maintained in the budget for coming years. How do we pay for this increase? Here come the negative!!! One way to pay for this salary increased would be to raise taxes. While this would definitely pay for the increase we would take a hit in the community for raising taxes during this time of economic downturn. The next way to pay for this would be to have a reduction in force (RIF) and then to give the remaining district employees a raise. This can be a positive in that the morale of the teachers that are left is good in that they get a raise but it can be negative because it just looks bad from the outside looking in. We must find a way to remain competitive in employee benefits and salaries to attract good teachers. This is the dilemma that I believe every school district in the state will soon have to make unless the legislature makes a change to put education as a priority.