Brownwood ISD school board is poised to give all district employees raises for the coming year despite cuts in state funding and uncertainty of the future in school finance, district officials said.
According to BISD Superintendent Dr. Reece Blincoe, the board had a very healthy deliberation about the issue at a budget workshop on Monday.
“The budget is so tight this year that we didn’t think we could do that and a budget based on no raises was being considered; basically we would freeze salaries for the year,” said Blincoe. “Board members were shown what our employees make on average and considering the increased cost of insurance of $30-40 per month or $360-480 per year, basically meant that they would be bringing home less this year. We had a good deliberation with all seven board members participating, a very healthy deliberation and at the end, the board decided to change the budget and put in step raises.”
Blincoe explained that adding raises would mean an additional $400,000 expenditure added to an already stretched budget; however, when looking at the district’s fund balance, it was decided to take a risk and include the raises to employees in the proposed 2012-2013 budget.
Blincoe said that school board trustee Eric Evans was very pivotal in the discussion by highlighting the cost of living and what it would mean to most employees of the district. He stated that all board members took this issue very seriously and reached the decision as a united board.
“Eric Evans took a very humanistic approach to the issue, he pointed out how taking the risk was good for our people, and good for district morale,” said Blincoe. “I appreciate all of our board members; it took them all to reach this decision. Our board stepped out there and took a step of faith that we may not be able to do in the future.”
Blincoe said that the importance of each employee outweighed any fear of what the legislature might or might not do.
“We just try to do right by our people and that is what we are all about. Any organization’s greatest resource is its people,” Blincoe said. “That is why we want to take this risk and let’s just hope that the legislature changes something in the future of school funding in their next session.”
Evans stated that the board had an open session and really took time deliberating the importance of the raises and the impact they will have on the employees.
“One of our district goals for a superintendent (when Blincoe was initially hired) was to get our pay within 5% of the state average. With budget challenges from the state, it has been difficult to work on that,” said Evans. “This wasn’t because we thought we could get better teachers by doing this, it’s because we think our teachers and staff are worth it.”
Evans and Blincoe both explained that a conservative estimate of the district’s fund balance is approximately $4.1-4.2 million. Even with the $400,000 cost of employee raises for the new school year, the balance would still be around 3.5-3.8 million which is still strong enough to receive a high state financial rating, according to Blincoe and Evans.
“We had a balanced budget on the table that did not have anything for the teachers. We wanted to see step raises for teachers with tenure and an approximately 2.5% raise for all other employees,” said Evans. “The cost of living index is about 3.6% and even though we can’t meet that, I was really pleased in the fact that everyone was on board with the decision. It’s $400,000, but clear across the board it was felt that our staff was worth it. They conserved resources when the state made cuts.”
Evans stated that he was pleased with the board’s consensus and that he feels that BISD had some great successes in the past few years.
“I think the story of quality education in Brownwood needs to be told by all of us,” said Evans. “BISD brings something so significantly different from other districts in our area. For our district’s size, it offers creativity in education such as dual credit classes, medical/nursing training, college ready graduates and cutting edge technology for our students.”
Evans stated that he expects the final vote to approve the raises to be cast on Monday. The only issue he felt that could hamper the vote, he explained, would be if the fund balance was lower than estimated.
The Brownwood ISD school board will meet Monday evening where they are expected to approve the budget for the new school year which includes the employee pay raises.
