ROISD increases staff/teacher compensation by $3-million

RED OAK – As the Red Oak ISD continues to make changes, last week selecting Dr. Ann Dixon as the interim superintendent, the district also just announced the new 2019-20 budget, tax rate and salaries.

“Overall, the increase in compensation totals around $3 million,” said Beth Trimble, Executive Director of Communications for Red Oak ISD.

The Red Oak ISD School Board approved what was described in a press release as a “conservative” 2019-20 budget in June while waiting for funding changes based on House Bill 3 to firm up later in the summer.

HB 3 is a major school reform bill that seeks to direct billions of additional dollars to public education.

That budget included the same pay raise as the previous year for all staff.

Since that time funding has become more detailed and the district has moved forward with a plan to further increase raises for all individuals on teacher contracts.

Other employee groups are also being evaluated.

Under the recently approved salary scale, the starting salary for teachers will be $48,000, up from $45,000 in 2018-19.

All current teachers on the salary schedule will receive a $3,000 raise as well as a step increase. The steps have been modified to provide standard steps for like years of service.

For the exempt employees pay scale they will receive a two percent raise while all non-exempt employees will receive a three percent raise of their paygrade midpoint.

In addition, some adjustments may be made for the market and hard to fill positions such as bus drivers.

“Red Oak ISD continues to raise salaries to recruit and retain the best educators in the area,” stated Board President John Anderson.

“We want to compensate our employees for the quality instruction they provide our students. The increased funding from HB3 will benefit our most important asset – our staff.”

The adopted tax rate of $1.17 for the M&O rate and $.37 for I&S for a total of $1.54 per $100 value will be reduced based on HB3.

The reduced tax rate will be presented to the Board in August or September along with an amended budget.