A Journey to Improve District Compensation
This week the MISD Board of Trustees approved a compensation plan containing raises for the 2021-22 school year for all Montgomery ISD employees. I want to thank the many employees who reached out with kind comments and to express their gratitude about the board’s actions. While we intend to do more for our employees in future years, the work behind this compensation plan has truly been a journey, beginning with the 2% raises approved by the board in October.
When looking at making additional salary increases across the district, we needed several items to make informed decisions, including data and your input. Since October, we conducted an internal study of how our salaries compare to neighboring districts, engaged a third party to review how we staff campuses and district offices and provide options to become more efficient, brought in all campus principals to assist in our decision-making, visited with staff at all 10 campuses and the district office and held two budget Town Hall meetings. Having the necessary data to make decisions and receiving feedback from employees were extremely important to us as we developed this compensation plan.
On top of the 2% raises approved in October, we’re excited to have had the opportunity to put forward a proposed compensation plan with an additional $3,300 for teachers (about a 5% raise), and an additional 3% pay raise for all other district employees. While there still work to be done to make Montgomery ISD salaries in the region, we hope this shows our commitment to prioritizing staff compensation in our budgeting.
I wanted to point out a few additional important points about the compensation plan.
First, the compensation plan adopted by the board takes effect upon the start of your 2021-22 school year contract or beginning of the next fiscal year, depending on your contract length and type of employment. What this means is that you will begin to see the raises and increased stipends reflected in your paycheck at the start of your 2021-22 duty schedule, depending on the number of work days in your contract. For at-will employees, the raises will begin at the start of your work schedule beginning in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Second, we have received some questions regarding the adjusted teacher hiring schedule. The hiring schedule salaries have been increased to become more competitive in the region. The teacher hiring schedule was also extended from 22 years to 30 years. I wanted to clarify a few items on this. First, with the adopted raises, a current Montgomery ISD teacher’s salary is designed to be – at a minimum – higher than what is reflected in the new salary schedule. The hiring schedule salaries reflect what a teacher entering Montgomery ISD would be compensated. For example, a teacher with two years of experience, entering Montgomery ISD during their fifth year of teaching would now have a starting salary of $55,875. This figure was increased from the $52,242 outlined in the previous 2020-21 hiring schedule. Current fifth year Montgomery ISD teachers received the 2% raise in October and will have also received the additional $3,300, bringing their salary to start their sixth year of teaching in Montgomery ISD above the $55,875 listed in the teacher hiring schedule.
Next, I want to be clear that while the teacher hiring schedule has been extended to 30 years, employees with 30+ years of experience still receive the $3,300 raise, and any salary increases approved each year by the board. Again, the hiring schedule reflects the salary of an individual entering the district for the first time, not existing Montgomery ISD employees, whose salaries will be – at a minimum – higher than what is outlined in the updated teacher hiring schedule. It’s also important to note that, while uncommon, a 30+ year teacher entering Montgomery ISD would receive a higher salary than what is listed at the 30-year mark in the hiring schedule. A 30-year range is common across many school district teacher hiring schedules.
Finally, I want to point our that professional, administrative, and auxiliary salary scales were all increased in the newly-adopted compensation plan. Many of you have inquired about raises being based on the midpoint of your salary. With the increased midpoints, the adopted raises for employees will actually be greater than they would have otherwise been without this adjustment. An adjustment to the salary scales is not something that has occurred when raises were approved in the past. Increasing the salary scales is an important component of making all district salaries more competitive.
Again, highlights of the Montgomery ISD 2021-22 Compensation Plan include the following:
- Current MISD teachers receive a $3,300 pay raise (about 5%), for a total increase of approximately 7% over 18 months when factoring in the 2% raise provided in October – for a total raise of $4,055.
- All other district employees receive a 3% pay raise, for a total of 5% over 18 months when factoring in the 2% raise provided in October.
- The teacher salary schedule has been extended from 22 to 30 years.
- Salary scales have been increased (Minimum, Midpoint, Maximum). Raises are calculated based on the increased salary midpoint.
- Stipends reduced in summer 2020 have been restored to their previous amount.
In the coming weeks, employees will receive a letter containing their projected salary for the 2021-22 school year. The Human Resources and Finance teams are working diligently to produce individualized letters to all employees. This is an enormous effort being put forward, and I want to express my sincere gratitude for their hard work on behalf of all district staff!
You can read the adopted 2021-22 compensation plan here.
Sincerely,
Dr. Heath Morrison
Recognizing our Assistant Principals
(Masks removed for photo)
It was truly a pleasure to recognize our outstanding assistant principals during the Board of Trustees meeting this week. Our district is blessed to have this amazing group of leaders who play a key role in providing all students with a high-quality education. They work so hard each day to keep our campuses running efficiently and effectively, attend after-school and extracurricular events and always go the “above and beyond” – especially this year – to serve the needs of students and families.
Here’s a short video featuring Oak Hills JH principal Tim Williams and Montgomery HS Principal Dr. Andria Schur expressing their gratitude for our assistant principals!
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The final meeting in our MISD Strategic Plan Town Hall series will take place next Tuesday, April 27 from 6-7:30 pm at Montgomery Jr. High School.
As you may know, we are developing a three-year Strategic Plan in alignment with the MISD Board of Trustees’ five adopted district goals:
- Academic Achievement
- School Safety
- Finance & Operations
- Human Capital
- Communications & Customer Service
The Strategic Plan is being developed by a district Task Force comprised of parents, MISD staff, students and other district stakeholders. The final Strategic Plan will consist of measurable key performance indicators surrounding the board’s district goals and will contain district initiatives and strategies intended to meet targets in the performance indicators. The final strategic plan will be adopted by the Board of Trustees in June and take effect at the start of the 2021-22 school year.
If you would like to provide your input regarding the areas addressed in the district’s goals, please join us for this important discussion!
Lake Creek HS VEX Robotics Team advances to global competition!
There was some great news over at Lake Creek HS this week that I want to “shout out”! This week, the Lake Creek HS VEX Robotics Team advanced to the global competition!
Lake Creek’s robotics teams began the school year with one goal in mind, return to the VEX Robotics World Championship. Throughout the year, students competed in virtual and in-person tournaments, and after each of these tournaments, teams would refine their robot and code to improve their world rankings. On Monday, team 2854Y, which is comprised of Garrett Denley, Niko Howell, Aiden Suarez, Colin Nerren, Colton Bailes, and Colton Jenkinson, accomplished their goal, and received their invitation to “Worlds”!
The VEX Robotics World Championship will take place over the course of a week starting on Sunday May 16th and running through Saturday May 22nd. Team 2854Y has been one of the top performing robotics teams across the globe throughout the whole season and has received much praise from other teams and coaches on the design of their robot.
Final Rankings:
World – 144th
United States – 101st
Texas – 7th
Gulf Coast Region – 4th
Way to go, Team 2854Y!
Early Voting underway for MISD Board of Trustees May 1 Election
Early voting for the MISD Board of Trustees election kicked off this week! Two seats on the MISD Board are up for election on May 1.
Running for Board of Trustees Position 4:
Trey Kirby
Christina Sato
Jay Grimes
Running for Board of Trustees Position 5:
Linda Porten
Early voting dates and times are:
- Monday, April 19 – Saturday, April 24 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
- Monday, April 26 – Tuesday, April 27 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
For a list of early voting locations, visit the Montgomery County Elections website at www.elections.mctx.org.
MISD Education Foundation’s ‘Together we Grow’ is Saturday!
I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the Montgomery ISD Education Foundation’s inaugural Together We Grow community fundraiser tomorrow evening, April 24 at 7 p.m.!
Together We Grow promises to be a wonderful evening, all in support of the Montgomery ISD Education Foundation, which is essential to our work as a district. The Foundation provides students with college scholarships and funds innovative, forward-thinking classroom and campus projects and provides teachers with tools needed to enhance their ability to educate our students.
I want to thank all, especially MISD parents and Foundation board members Jessica Grace and Shannan Reid who worked “overtime” to make Together We Grow a reality. We’ll see you all on Saturday!
The MISD Premier Blog 