Finance 5342 Week 4, Part 4

Finance 5342 Week 4, Part 4

Personnel salaries make up 80.19% of Azle ISD’s total budget. This is from General Fund 199 and does not include any federal money or payrolls. Upon receiving this information I was a little surprised it was so high. Over the years, I have heard our Superintendent and other Central Administrators say that 80%-85% of our total budget was allocated for salaries. Over the past several years our district has been cutting back on personnel. We have absorbed over 75 positions through attrition, this has included central administration positions, teaching positions, para-professional positions, clerical positions and custodial staff.  No raises were given to any employees this year. The district also decided to apply for waiver of 25:1 ratio in lower elementary. The result of these cutbacks, over the past three years, allowed Azle ISD to not have to lay-off any employees and adopt a balanced budget (with a little help from the fund balance). With all this being stated, I was surprised to find that the overall salary expenses are still a little over 80%.

There are many positive and negative impacts associated with a 5% salary increase. For the current school year our budget would not have been able to support a 5% increase in salary. A raise to employees is a huge morale booster, especially in today’s times when we are asking employees to do more than before.  Any time employees are given raises I feel this improves your overall moral, which in turns helps recruit along with retain good employees. This helps creates a better atmosphere inside the classroom for students.  As mentioned in this week’s lecture by Dr. Stephens, “excellent teachers are the key to an excellent instructional program”.

The negative side of a raise this year would have been “deeper” cuts in other areas, which could have (but I do not see how) include personnel. In my opinion it is hard to cut lay-off employees and justify giving a pay increase to others.  Sometimes a salary increase can be perceived by some as negative depending on how raises are given and if all groups get raises (administrators, teachers, auxiliary staff, etc). Often not all groups get raises. If percentage raises are given, employees at the lower end of the salary schedule are not happy because they do not get as large of raise. Across the board raises of a set amount are often used but again can have a negative impact on veteran staff who feel they “deserve” a larger increase than beginning teachers.  A raise increase could also have a negative impact in the community, more so if people in the community are having tough financial times and/or unhappy with the school district. This would be true in a situation where the school board raise taxes in an effort to generate additional funds for salary increases.

In concluding our discussion our Superintendent ended by saying the bottom line is “if you can afford it do it, if you can’t afford it you can’t do it”. I know often we hear this but unfortunately in today’s times of school finance this is the case in school districts all across the state. Most districts have awarded some salary raise for the past several years but found themselves in a position of not being able to do so this year.