Understanding Personnel Salaries in District Budgets

When thinking about the allocation of a budget to salaries, I think teacher pay is something that has to be considered and the amount of money spent on personnel is crucial.  The adults' working with kids is the single most important factor in academic success for students.  Currently.  Spring Branch ISD currently spends 87% of their budget on personnel.  It has always been stated, and with the budget cuts in 2010, it was evident that the superintendent values the personnel in the system and works to ensure that teachers and support staff are the single most important part of a successful school system.  In addition, when budget cuts were upon us, the superintendent felt it necessary to do a complete restructure and overhaul to the system in order to cut as few teachers as possible.  This strategic move helped teachers to feel comfortable and gain respect for the work that was being done in the system and helped them to believe that the work being done with students in the classroom was the number one priority.

In our current state, the teachers recently received a 3% raise for a variety of reasons.  This decision had several pros and cons, which I will address in accordance with, question two.  The positive aspect of this decision was current teacher satisfaction, competitive salaries in comparison to neighboring districts, and teacher understanding to commitment to rewarding quality work in the classroom.  The negative aspects to these types of salary increases is that without them, we would struggle to be competitive, teachers might leave because they do not feel valued, and finally, due to the continued restraint on state funds, with an increase comes the cost of allocating funds to existing teachers and not adding additional staff when needed.  Due to our recent salary increase, class sizes in our system are growing.  Although the salary increase is only one variable in this dilemma, it is probably the most talked about factor.