[Fort Worth Star-Telegram] When the Grapevine-Colleyville school district Grapevine is about 30 miles northwest of Dallas...
received an unexpected $9.7 million in federal flood control payments in May, administrators knew what to do with the cash -- give salary increases in a multiyear plan to bring up employee pay to competitive rates, Superintendent Robin Ryan said.
The plan, approved 7-0 by the school board Monday night, calls for spending $7.2 million of the money on employee pay and socking away $2.5 million for future projects associated with the district's LEAD 2021 strategic plan.
"Our salaries have not kept up with those in neighboring districts, and we have felt the impact," said Ryan. "We have had talented and experienced people at all levels of our district leave for higher pay."
"Y'gotta pay top dollar if you want the best people, like us..."
It will work like this: $1.2 million of the $7.2 million will be distributed among employees this year for permanent salary adjustments, and the remaining $6 million will be used to sustain the raises over the next five years without affecting the operating budget.
At the end of the five years they're expecting another boodle...
Depending on how their salaries compare with the pay for similar positions in other North Texas districts, employees will receive raises of at least 0.75 percent and in some cases as much as 10 to 12 percent.
The pay increases are in addition to the 1 percent cost-of-living raises and 1 percent one-time bonuses already approved in the district's 2012-13 operating budget.
Before this year, school employees had not received raises since 2009.
The district has received flood-control money from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Minerals and Management Services before, but the payments fluctuated between $400,000 and $1.2 million, so administrators weren't able to budget or plan on them.
Shouldn't flood control money be spent on flood control? Doesn't that leave you with the risk of having your competitively paid teachers and (especially) administrators washed away when Denton Creek floods so badly Grapevine Lake won't hold it? What good are pay raises of from .75 percent to even 12 percent when you're laid out stiff but soggy?
Teachers will get the bulk of the money -- $733,000. District leaders hope to boost Grapevine-Colleyville teacher pay into the Top 10 among 20 neighboring districts.
Are students performing in the top 10 among 20 in the state-wide tests? I know, I know, rhetorical question...
Another $256,000 will be distributed districtwide among campus leadership and support personnel.
A nice little package for administrators with some left over to tip the secretaries and maybe even the lunch ladies.
