DSISD approves extra compensation for aides, bus monitors and teachers

DRIPPING SPRINGS — At its Nov. 13 meeting, the Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved an amended compensation plan to focus on the positions that the district has found to be harder to fill.

“We’ve had some different employee groups come and speak about how hard it is to do the job. On top of that, we see every day on our vacancies, it’s really really hard to specifically fill our positions for our students with special education,” said Chief Human Resources Officer Linda Hall.

Under the approved amended compensation plan, special education instructional aides will receive a $3 hourly pay differential added to their base pay and bus monitors will receive a $3 increase to their minimum hourly rate.

There are a total of 10 bus monitor positions, with six being currently filled and four that have been vacant all year, Hall explained. These monitors are only on the buses with special education students who need that service.

“We feel confident that, just like we saw with our bus drivers, the pay is going to make a difference,” she said. “We are going to be able to not only recruit people from outside the district who are here looking for a job that may leave a different career and come work with our kids. But also, it’s going to help us retain our people who are here.”

Teachers who are teaching an additional section will also receive an annualized stipend. Hall said that the district, specifically at Dripping Springs Middle School, currently has four teachers who have volunteered to assist in covering classes, rather than the students having to learn from a long-term substitute.

“We are also still struggling to fill some of our teacher vacancies. Some of our fantastic teachers have agreed to take on an additional section and so, we would like to provide compensation for them,” Hall said. “It’s going to be a stipend of one-eighth of their base salary, not just the beginning [or] zero year, but if they have 10 years of experience, it’s going to be based on their specific salary.”

Trustee Kim Cousins said that this type of amended compensation plan is needed for the dedicated employees in the district.

“Those are some of the hardest working people in this district and I just think it’s great that you guys have come up with this plan and presented it to us. Every little bit helps,” she said. “Those are amazing people and I just think anything we can do to help them is great.”

Olivia Barnard, another trustee, agreed that this is critical, but asked how the district was able to make this work with the existing budget: “I am super excited about the recommendation, but I think anytime we do any type of change like this, the obvious concern is, ‘Where is that money coming from? Is there going to be another increase?’”

“This year, we scrubbed the budget to find things that were budgeted that we might not [be able to] do. So, we are doing that through realigning our budget to cover this year,” responded Deputy Superintendent Elaine Cogburn. “Next year, it will be part of our total compensation package that we will have to balance with our budget.”

Trustee Shannon O’Connor echoed the appreciation for the district’s administration and staff for their work on designing the plan that was presented to the board. However, she noted the imbalance of compensation between different positions.

“I’m having a hard time stomaching that we pay our bus drivers $30 an hour and we are not able to give more to our paraprofessionals who sometimes are right in the line of fire,” she explained. “That really causes me a lack of sleep and it really just gives me heartburn up here. But I don’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate all the work that everyone has done and I understand there are checks and balances. I do want our teachers to know how appreciated they are, all of our staff.”

To O’Connor’s point, Barnard asked if there are any groups of employees that the district has missed completely with stipends, incentives and additional compensation.

“We are focusing on our hardest-to-fill positions that have the biggest impact on the students. And we’ve really seen across all the areas that our special education is the area that has the highest number of vacancies,” Hall responded. “So, then, you have more subs there [and] subs can’t be in other classrooms … We are looking at custodial, also, because that is [another] area so there are plans in the works there. But specifically as far as recruiting and retaining staff, special education in the area of instructional aides and monitors are the two that we have not been able to move with that needle.”

To read the full amended compensation plan presented at the Nov. 13 meeting, visit https://bit.ly/46qhzyi.