OISD raises salaries 3.5 pct over state minimums
Olney teachers will see a 3.5 percent increase over last year’s district salary schedule, because the school board stepped in to raise teacher pay where state legislators failed to do so. The salary hike places the district’s salaries at about a 12% increase over the state minimum for an entry level teacher and around 14% over the state minimum for a 10th-year teacher.
The new salary schedule, approved by the OISD Board of Trustees on Feb. 26, will augment yearly raises mandated by the Texas Education Agency for public school teachers, said Olney Independent School District board president Summer Branum.
OISD last adjusted salaries for the 2021-2022 school year, Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach said.
“Our salaries are generally better than any of the 2A districts in our area and competitive with the 3A, 4A, and 5A districts in our area,” Dr. Roach said. “Our daily rates of pay are also extremely competitive with private sector pay.”
Texas school districts were hoping to see lawmakers use part of a $33-billion budget surplus to significantly increase pay for public school teachers during the last legislative session. Instead, proposed teacher pay raises were used as a bargaining chip for Gov. Greg Abbott to try to force rural lawmakers to accept a voucher scheme that would use taxpayer funds to pay for private schooling for some children.
Rural educators and administrators have long opposed voucher programs which they believe will hollow out one of the lowest-funded public education systems in the country.
The voucher legislation failed in both regular and special legislative sessions, and with it, state-funded teacher pay raises for the next two years.
The average starting salary for a Texas teacher is $45,493, the 14th highest in the nation, according to National Education Association statistics. But Texas teachers quickly lose ground, with an average teacher in Texas making $58,887 – dropping to 28th in the nation, the NEA said. Texas ranks 38th in the nation in per-student spending, NEA statistics showed.
OISD starting teachers earned $36,513 during the 2023-24 school year, according to the district’s minimum salary schedule. Teacher salaries in Olney top out at $63,297 in 2023-24, the schedule showed. Teachers can also earn extra money for having master’s degrees or doctorates or by teaching AP classes or coaching, for example.
The salary increases will cost OISD close to $300,000 in the coming school year, which will add the sa,e amount to the district’s budget in 2024-25, Dr. Roach said. Because teachers already receive a step increase for each additional year of service, the local pay increases will represent a significant pay boost for teachers year-on-year, as much as 7.5% at some levels, Mrs. Branum said.
School administration employees, who do not receive annual guaranteed pay increases, will receive a 5.5 percent increase across the board next year, she said.
“We are in a really bad economic period with the high cost of living,” Mrs. Branum said. “We didn’t get the progress that we wanted from the state of Texas in terms of a salary increase this year. We wanted to do everything we could locally to make this happen for our staff. We would have loved to have made it more.”
Olney boosts teacher salaries above state-mandated levels from the very earliest level of experience, with Olney teachers starting at $37,791 and the state schedule mandating $33,660, TEA salary schedules show.
“The idea behind that is we want to attract the best teachers and give them incentive to stay,” Mrs. Branum said. “We want to make sure we stay extremely competitive, focusing especially on that more experienced range.”