(Seguin) — Seguin ISD employees are getting a much-deserved pay raise. That’s according to Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez. Dr. Gutierrez says the news of an increase is welcoming especially since the district was unable to pass along the extra dollars last year.
“So, last year for several reasons, one because of the uncertainty that came as a result of COVID and some of the unexpected expenditures that came as a result of COVID, we were not able to provide a salary increase to our employees unfortunately. However, we were able to provide a one-time COVID pay during the school year to make up for that but it still did not equate to what a salary increase would have been. We’re really excited that we are able to award all of our employees with a salary increase, three percent for teachers, 2.5 percent for all other employees for the 2021-2022 school year,” said
Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says the school district is grateful to be in a position to offer this increase. He says the local staff is more than deserving.
“Our staff went above and beyond. Everyone took on additional responsibilities from the custodian to the child nutrition worker, to the principal, teacher, assistant superintendent to myself – everyone had additional responsibilities this year and I’m just really proud of the work that we all did as a team to ensure that we had a safe learning environment while at the same time, providing quality instruction to our kids whether they were face to face or remote. So, I’m thankful that we have been able to put aside the funds to be able to do that and to be able to get the support from our board of trustees to recognize the work that took place this past school year,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says the Seguin ISD has positioned itself to be competitive if not at the top of the salary schedule for teachers in this region. He says the starting salary for teacher is now at $51,500. He says
that’s increase of $500 from last year.
“We’ve been increasing that starting salary. We did increase it and we plan to continue to increase it and be competitive. So, we have probably gone up about $7,000 over the last four years and so I’m proud to say we can compete with your Austin and San Antonio school districts now and what we are starting to see is we are starting to see more experienced teachers choosing to come to Seguin and that’s something else that really excites me – the fact that we are getting more teachers who have experience. Looking at some salaries today from the Austin area – in fact, we looked at a couple of big districts and we are starting teachers at a higher rate,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says not only is the increase enticing for the recruitment of new teachers, but the district’s experienced teachers also stand to benefit.
“But it’s also important that we retain our employees, so we decided this year, not to invest so much with that starting salary but to invest into that 3 percent going towards our teachers who maybe have more experience because typically what you do is you invest in increasing that starting salary. We did increase it and we plan to continue to increase it and be competitive but it’s also important that we recognize the work that our committed employees do and also make sure that we are competitive with those teachers who have more experience as well,” said Gutierrez.
The new salary schedule is set to go into effect for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.