El Paso Independent School District stumbled in its ongoing efforts to rebuild trust when the school board awarded Superintendent Juan Cabrera a $45,499 pay raise.
Cabrera has done a good job as superintendent, helping to rebuild a district shattered by cheating and corruption scandals. The school board also has steered a steady course. Those changes led voters in November to pass a record $669 million bond issue to overhaul EPISD infrastructure.
But the school board’s recent decision to give Cabrera a 15 percent raise has prompted well-deserved backlash from teachers and others who also have played a key role in rebuilding the district.
The huge raise, boosting Cabrera’s base pay to almost $350,000 a year, came with no advance public notice. That’s pretty typical of how Texas school districts have long operated, but EPISD is not a typical district.
In trying to recover from the district’s recent history, the current EPISD board and administration have pursued a higher level of transparency than is typical in school systems. That has been a welcome change.
That higher level of transparency was needed in the decision to give Cabrera a huge raise. The board should have notified the public that it was considering such a raise before approving it. That would have allowed for public debate, which would have been uncomfortable but helpful.
Instead, the board reverted to traditional practice. They evaluated the superintendent in closed session, then came back into public session to approve his large pay raise. The public had no inkling that such a raise was under consideration, so had no input.
That approach may be justifiable in most districts but certainly not in a district slowly rebuilding trust with employees and the public.
The reaction from teacher groups was fierce and predictable. Symbolically, the size of Cabrera’s raise was about the same as a salary for a first-year teacher. EPISD teachers and staff receive lower pay than neighboring districts.
“We are always given the story that there is never enough money,” Norma De La Rosa, president of the El Paso Teachers Association, said the day after the raise was granted. “And to hear last night that they gave him a 15 percent pay raise — my question is, where did they find that money and 15 percent and can’t find money for the teachers in the classroom, custodians and everyone else who works in the district and pay them a livable wage.”
Cabrera, who was hired in 2013, and the school board members, who took office in 2015, deserve much credit for the work they’ve done to refocus EPISD on educating children.
But the work of rebuilding trust with a community betrayed by previous leadership is ongoing and challenging. EPISD leaders must be aware constantly that business as usual doesn’t cut it.
The process used to give the superintendent a sizable raise fell short of what this community needs and deserves. EPISD leaders must do better going forward.
