With the Ector County ISD Board of Trustees’ decision earlier this week to increase salaries for the district’s 4,200 employees, Superintendent Scott Muri said the district’s starting pay will be the highest in the region.
The starting salary for teachers will be $58,750, Muri said. But there were other increases included.
The total budget impact is $9.367 million, Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers has said.
“(We’re) excited to be able to offer that to our teachers that we recruit into the profession from other areas. Also, there are existing teachers that will see a significant raise,” he added during his media call Wednesday.
In addition to that, trustees approved a 3 percent across-the-board raise for professionals; a 4 percent raise for all hourly employees; and raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour, an increase from $10 an hour two years ago.
“I commend the board of trustees for making such a significant investment in the employees of Ector County Independent School District,” Muri said.
“That type of strategic action will ensure that we’re not only recruiting, but retaining the very best educators and professionals and paraprofessionals within our community; so excited about what this means to ECISD employees,” he added.
On a separate item, on Thursday the district delivered to 31 campuses its first teacher incentive allotment.
“Two years ago ECISD became a part of a Texas program called Teacher Incentive Allotment. There aren’t many school districts in Texas that have become a part of this environment, but what it does is it allows us to recognize this year teachers in both mathematics and English language arts whose students perform at the highest levels. They are growing at a significant rate. These teachers have proven their effectiveness with students by outpacing their peers,” Muri said.
Thursday, they recognized 120 of those teachers through the Teacher Incentive Allotment program.
“ECISD will give out over $850,000 tomorrow to those 120 teachers,” Muri said.
Muri said the Teacher Incentive Allotment was supported by the state legislature.
“And as long as the legislature continues to fund the teacher allotment, the teachers every single year that earn it will continue to receive their funding,” Muri said.
Teachers that received the allotment Thursday will receive a designation on their teaching certificate which lasts five years.
“An example of that is we have some teachers that will be designated as master teachers. That is a designation for the most effective teacher and they will retain that designation for the next five years. As long as they continue to teach students in a Texas classroom, they will receive every single year a pretty significant amount of money because of that designation. So as long as the state legislature continues to fund the Teacher Incentive Allotment, we will continue to provide it for teachers in ECISD,” Muri said.
They started at Murry Fly Elementary School and worked their way across the district.
ECISD also has a vacant board spot left by District 7 member Nelson Minyard that they are looking to fill.
“… We have waited to fill that vacancy until now. The reason for that delay is because of the redistricting of our political boundaries,” Muri said.
“Last night (Tuesday), the board of trustees approved a redistricting plan, and so as of today, all of the seven political districts in ECISD are now repositioned and we are ready to fill that vacancy. The board of trustees is now accepting applications from anyone living in the new District 7 who is interested in serving on the board of trustees. The map for District 7, as well as the application, are available on the Ector County Independent School District website; that is www.ectorcountyisd.org,” he added.
The website has more information about serving as a board member. He added that you would have to live in that district and there are some other criteria, which is on the site.
“The board will be accepting applications for the next several weeks and then in the month of June, the board will interview selected candidates then make a final decision as to their appointment for this new position towards the end of the month of June,” Muri said.
