Faculty, staff to see 4 percent raise during upcoming school year
(Seguin) — Navarro ISD employees will pocket some additional dollars this coming school year.
The school district has unanimously approved a 4 percent salary increase for all faculty and staff members. Navarro ISD officials say this decision follows the comprehensive recommendations made by the district’s first-ever Compensation Committee, which included two board members, teachers, administrators, maintenance, custodial, food service, and paraprofessionals.
Navarro ISD Superintendent Mandy Epley says the salary increase decision was the direct result of months of meeting, planning, and evaluating various compensation-related topics.
“That group really talked through options. Not only for salary but also for insurance and some of those perks of being an employee and so they brought those recommendations to the school board and shared what they thought would be quality compensation moving forward and we really thought it was a power experience for our employees. We loved that all of them got to have their voices heard and all employee groups were represented and so they shared that information and we hope to continue that each year so that we can continue to have those voices heard and the board really liked that they had recommended the four percent,” said Epley.
As part of the recommendation to the Navarro ISD Board of Trustees on Monday, the district also gave the green light for a $1 flat increase for hourly employees. This includes classroom paraprofessional staff, food service, custodial staff, maintenance staff, and bus monitors. A 4 percent midpoint for non-professional staff was also extended to bus drivers plus office and technology staff.
Over the last couple of years, Epley says the district has made strides to move the district forward. She said last year, the district was also able to give a four percent increase when others were not able to.
Epley says they wanted to show support to their employees, and the district wanted to remain as competitive as possible.
“In a growing district having more students come in and maintaining that high attendance rate really helps us to continue to offer good salaries for our employees. So, we felt as we looked at it, that we really did support that four percent and could see that working in our budget. We also recognized that some of hourly employees were below some of the area’s and we wanted to bring them up so we agreed to that additional dollar that the committee had recommended as well,” said Epley.
Despite constrained education budgets, Epley is confident that the Navarro ISD can fully support its operations for the upcoming fiscal year.
“Right now, we are projecting that we will not be in a deficit. We will be right at break even but surrounding school districts are struggling with that. We are trying to predict what the legislature may or may not do in support of education and so as we look at that, we are very mindful of our revenue, of what our taxpayer dollars are coming in and how we can be fiscally responsible in meeting the needs of our community as it grows and also being a competitive district that is able to recruit these amazing people to really make Navarro ISD an awesome place to work and learn in and raise your family in,” said Epley.
Additionally, district officials say the committee had initially recommended a $20 increase in the district’s contribution towards health insurance costs. However, with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) recently announcing a 13 percent increase in health insurance plan rates for 2024-25, the employee-only cost is set to rise by $50. In response, they say the district will increase its contribution by $35, ensuring that the same percentage contribution towards health insurance costs is maintained.
Despite this unexpected news, Epley adds that the district is grateful that it could still provide some relief to its employees.
“But one of the things that came in late that the committee did not see was the teacher retirement system which we use for our insurance was going to increase rates and while we had already talked with the committee about a small increase, we really felt that after they release what the increase would be that we needed to bump that up even further so that was really the only change that the board saw (Monday night) from the original recommendation and the board is in full support of making sure the people who work in Navarro ISD are compensating for the amazing work they do with our kids,” said Epley.
The starting salary for a new beginning teacher in the Navarro ISD is now $54,300. That’s compared to this year’s salary of $52,500.