NISD board approves faculty raises
Courtesy photo Navasota ISD board of trustees approved pay scale raises across the board for all NISD employees at a regular scheduled bard meeting Monday, July 15.
Navasota Independent School District board of trustees were all smiles after accepting all three proposed salary scale raise recommendations from Navasota ISD Superintendent Dr. Stu Musick.
House Bill 3 (HB3) mandated schools to distribute 30 percent of additional revenue toward salary increases. The approximate additional revenue NISD anticipates is $2,756,835. Thirty percent of those funds are approximately $827,051.
The remaining 70 percent ($1,929,784) is additional funding that can be used in the district for maintenance and operational needs.
Not included in mandated raises for HB3 are administrators. The administration pay scale hasn’t been revised in 10 years. Musick proposed raises to pay scales for all NISD employees and the board elected to nearly double the government mandated raises. Raises approved totaled $1,724,827.
“I shared with our board president (Jennifer Ramirez) that I got really fired up the night that we passed our bond because that was great for Navasota ISD,” explained a tearful Musick. “I get emotional because this is historic legislation that just took place, and this is historic action by our board tonight to reward our folks at a time when we are able to.” Musick thanked the legislation for HB3 and the board for approving the raises.
Pay increases by the numbers
Teachers, certified librarians and registered nurses with zero to five-years’ experience will see an 8 percent increase to their step scale. The starting salary for teachers increases from $40,400 to $43,632. Librarians and nurses with six to 20 years’ experience obtain a 12 percent increase and those with 21 to 25 years’ experience will get a 10.5 percent increase.
Counselors and professional staff gain a 12 percent increase in pay scale and auxiliary support staff, paraprofessionals, cafeteria staff and campus and district level administrators receive a 10 percent raise to their pay scales.
Percentage adjustments to salary scales for additional NISD faculty and staff are made possible by additional funding available for maintenance and operational money provided to schools from HB3.
“I just wanted to point out that this is taking care of your people right here,” said NISD board member Greg Mock. “That’s what were doing is taking care of our folks.
Hopefully in two years our legislatures can come together and find a way to make this sustainable so that we aren’t in a jam moving forward.”
Board vice president Tim Harris said, “I think it has been sending the wrong message for a long time not counting the teaching experience especially with the assistant principals and the principles. We have a lot of assistant principles who were promoted because of their teaching experience and implementing the three for one is correcting something that should have been corrected long ago.”
Jennifer Ramirez, NISD board president, expressed a big thank you to Dr. Musick and his staff. “When HB3 was passed it looks simple but there is a lot that goes into figuring out how it impacts NISD directly. Dr. Musick and his team have done a great job of crunching numbers and ensuring that all employees of NISD are taken care of. They have all sacrificed a lot of time and their families have been sacrificed a lot during this process.”
Other action
Approved auto
shop purchase
Construction is moving forward in Phase II of the construction bond. The board approved the expenditure of over $50,000 to purchase equipment from Mohawk to purchase equipment for the new automotive shop class.
Equipment being purchased will include a four point and two-point heavy duty vehicle lift, tire machine and wheel balancer among other items.
NISD board member Paul Malek emphasized that Mohawk is a great company that produces quality products and he is happy that NISD is moving forward with the purchase of the equipment.
Renewed contract with
NPD
A contract to allow Navasota Police Department to provide school resource officers ( SRO) to NISD for the next two years was approved.
According to Police Chief Shawn Myatt, two resource officers will be provided. Myatt indicated additional officers will continue to provide security around school zones but in the future a third SRO may need to be added.
Lil’ Rattler Academy
The Navasota ISD Little Rattler Academy is in the works and is undergoing inspections. According to Musick the NISD day care is projected to begin its first day Monday, Aug. 5.