by WES FERGUSON
Teachers in Hays CISD, for years the lowest-paid educators in Central Texas, could be in line for their second significant pay raise in as many years in 2012-13.
The school district is in the first year of an aggressive three-year plan to bring teacher salaries in line with the average pay for educators throughout the Austin area, according to Superintendent Jeremy Lyon.
“Teacher quality is the most important variable in student performance, and we want to be able to recruit and retain teachers that are going to be with us for their careers,” Lyon said. “And in order to do that, your compensation must be competitive. All we’re trying to do is get it up to average. That’s the first step. But it’s a critical first step.”
With the first round of increases taking effect in the current school year, Lyon said Hays CISD appears to have surpassed the doormat salary scales of at least two Central Texas schools: Del Valle and Bastrop.
“We’re not last anymore,” he said.
The district’s salary scale increased across the board in the current school year. The raises vary by years of service, with fifth-year teachers seeing a 3.9 percent bump, for instance, and 10th-year teachers earning a 6.8 percent hike.
“We’re moving up,” said Steve Thompson, a Lehman High School teacher, the Hays chapter president of the Association of Texas Professional Educators and a member of the district’s compensation committee.
For years, Thompson said, the district relied on a steady stream of area college graduates and other teachers who would settle for less money in order to live in Central Texas.
“There’s no shortage of applicants, so I think we went through a spell where we didn’t give increases and we just got behind,” he said. “Now we’re recognizing we are competing with other districts, and we’re in catch-up mode.”
Lyon described the district’s teacher pay as “not acceptable” but added that it’s too soon to commit to the proposed increases in the next school year. He said district administrators would have a clearer handle on their ability to give raises by the time the 2012-13 draft budget is presented to school board members in May.
“We’re still working on that,” he said. “We’re not sure, and we have to be very conservative with it, but we’re not going to take our eye off the prize in terms of the three-year commitment.”
Lyon said better pay would help improve the district’s teacher retention rate, which is about average for Central Texas. It would also nurture a healthier community, he added.
“As the largest employer in northern Hays County,” Lyon said, “we want to be an employer that offers competitive family-wage jobs so people can live and work here.”
