By Andy Sevilla

Hays CISD counselors’ continued fight for fixes to alleged inequities in their pay could finally see resolution by year’s end after several months of battle. 

Counselors have publicly said they have lobbied Hays CISD’s administration since May, and later the school board, to adjust their pay and bring them in line to market wages.

Counselors were removed from a step schedule, the same one teachers are in, and reclassified to a pay grade that only received a 1.5 percent pay increase this school year. Teachers received a three percent pay jump. 

 “We understand that we are valued in the district and there is a finite amount of funds, but also keep in mind that this is our livelihood, and I think that when your livelihood is at stake, that’s when you come to seven board meetings in a row and talk about it,” Barton Middle School counselor Viktoria Rask told the board at the Nov. 17 meeting.

Though fixes to counselor salaries were in the agenda as an action item at that meeting, the board has yet to receive necessary information illustrating wage comparisons with 14 other school districts. 

School administrators said they could have those wage comparisons available by Dec. 8, after open records requests seeking school counselor wages at 14 school districts are answered. 

The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) recommended the counselors’ wage reclassification during budget discussions before this school year. Those recommendations came about from seemingly inaccurate information that Hays counselors have for months tried to have corrected. 

“It matters to us,” Rask said. “It matters to us now, it matters to us in retirement, it makes a difference about whether or not we’re going to stay in this district, and ultimately that’s what we want.”

School administrators have recommended the school board take action on counselor pay in January, once TASB has had an opportunity to correct their wage survey data for all district employees. 

Some school board members, however, want to take action as soon as possible and have questioned the need to wait for TASB figures.

“I don’t think the TASB report that we get on (December) 15th is going to change anything. I think that we are smart people and can make our own decisions on what we do when we have all of the information from the surrounding districts,” Holly Raymond, school board vice president, said.

While looking at all district employees’ pay is important, Raymond said, counselors’ salaries could be fixed before the Christmas break, and then salaries for others could be addressed in January. 

“There are not any other employees that are here, that are coming to the meetings, and that have been here in the last seven meetings with a consistent message of ‘it’s incorrect, it was miscalculated, it was wrong,’” she said. “And I think that we should look at everybody and we should fix everybody, but at the same time I don’t think that there’s any reason we need to wait until January (to fix counselor pay).”

School Board President Robert Limon cautioned against setting criteria based on employee representation at board meetings, adding that some employees may not be able to attend meetings due to other responsibilities.

“We talk about assistant principals possibly being a group that we need to address and they may be on duty this evening at athletic events or such, so I just think that it’s kind of a bad idea to make comments like that,” Limon said. 

“I’m sure if they could be here, I think everybody in the district is concerned about their paycheck. And if they felt it would help, and if they could be here, they probably would be here as well.”

Raymond rebutted by saying that her commentary was nothing more than an example that the district must have really wronged the counselors for that many of the affected group to attend the last seven meetings.

“I think if the assistant principals had an issue that they probably could have found a date in the last seven meetings that we’ve had to come,” Raymond said. “I’m just using it as an example of the commitment to the mistake that we made that we need to fix.”

Part of the counselor pay issues can be attributed to lack of clarity, according to trustee Willie Tenorio. He said he voted for the budget without knowledge that an employee group was being moved from one type of pay scheduled to another.

“Maybe if that was clear in the beginning, whether people liked it or not, we would have been aware, especially the employees, and then had a better idea of what they were going to get paid,” Tenorio said. “And so maybe even if they didn’t like it, at least it wouldn’t have been a surprise when their first paychecks rolled in.”

Raymond echoed Tenorio, though Superintendent Mike McKie said the pay grade change was mentioned by TASB during their presentation. 

“I do agree with you that it may not have been discussed in great detail,” McKie said. “It may have been presented by TASB where it may not have been stressed that this was a huge change or something to that effect…”

In the future, McKie said, officials will make it a point to highlight changes to employee pay schedules during budget deliberations.

For now, officials will present the board with market wage comparisons on Dec. 8, and the board could likely take action on Dec. 15 to address counselor pay. 

TASB is slated to present the board their wage survey at the Dec. 15 meeting, and board members could take action to address any other employee pay discrepancies in January.