Understanding Professional Salaries in District Budgets

Huffman ISD’s total personnel salaries make up about 67% of our total revenue and about  83% of our total operating expenditures.  Over the past 7 years, our Board has made it a priority to bring our teacher salaries into a range competitive with districts in our surrounding area.  We are the only 3A district in Harris County – this means we have to compete with the salaries of 4A and 5A districts that have much higher property value and business/industry support than Huffman.  In planning for the salary increases, we knew that Huffman had a strong projected enrollment growth.  Principals worked hard to make sure our ADA increased each year.  Our property values were also on the rise.  All combined, our Board was confident in implementing salary increases for all staff in our district.  The increases eventually put us in a competitive range with the surrounding districts.  The raises were possible because we knew our revenue would be increasing each year and would provide enough to cover these expenditures. 

Without the revenue increases, as was the case this year, the raises would not have been possible.  In a district like Huffman, every penny matters.  If we don’t have extra pennies, we can’t spend extra money.  A 5% salary increase will have a major impact on our budget if we do not see at least a 5% revenue increase along with it.  If revenue stays the same, a 5% salary increase would take our salaries from 83% of our operating budget to about 87% of our operating budget, and we’d have to decide where the budget cuts would come from in order to cover the salary increase….very likely from a reduction in force.  Currently, we are still a bit below the state average in professional salaries by about $2,000.  When we worked on the budget and staffing positions for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years, we had lengthy discussions about paying stipends to math and science teachers to keep us competitive with neighboring districts.  It was decided that we really couldn’t afford to do so.  It turned out to be okay; we were still able to attract and retain excellent math and science teachers.  We recognize that the attributes of working in a small school district can offset the fact that we might not pay as much as our neighbors.

Positives of a 5% raise:  This is a given:  boost in morale; increase in teacher retention; ability to attract and retain the best teachers in the area; a boost in teacher morale results in a boost in student morale.

Negatives of a 5% raise:  can deter a goal driven budget; may require taking money from fund balance; may require a tax increase; might result in personnel salaries  exceeding 80% of M & O budgets; established educational programs would likely be altered or cut completely; goals of the district would be impacted negatively.