Alliance/American Federation of Teachers uncovers possible budget items where dollars could be found for a Dallas ISD employee pay raise

by Aimee Bolender

DALLAS — Should administration and the a majority of school board members adopt a "can do" attitude, Alliance/AFT has brought to their collective attention the following list of budget items where we believe potential dollars can be found for a cost of living increase for all teachers, professional school related personnel, including those with longevity pay, and school support employees.

The following list includes $57.45 million worth of potential dollars that could be used for pay raises.

As of today, approximately 3,000 teachers will receive no pay raise at all. The balance of teachers and school related employees will receive step advancement, equal to approximately 1.7%.

Support employees will receive no increase at all.

Possible District Funding Sources for Teacher and School Employee 2008-2009 Pay Raises

• Begin an immediate program designed to save electrical costs throughout the district. (done in part)
• Earmark proposed $13 million budget surplus in 2007-2008 for compensation in 2008-2009. (General Fund: Interim Financial Statements, April 30, 2008)
• Leave $100 million in the fund balance. Take the remaining $9.5 million for compensation. (General Fund: Interim Financial Statements, April 30, 2008)
• Replace $5 million from the maintenance budget with $5 million from bond improvements fund.
• Eliminate the recently added ten additional workdays for principals for an estimated savings of $1 million.
• Eliminate the recently added ten additional workdays for campus office personnel for an estimated savings of $600,000.
• Fund the one-time audit improvements of $4.5 million from the fund balance or through Dallas Achieves or the Dallas Foundation.
• The TERRP financial award for improved teacher attendance will result in reduced costs in substitute pay. Estimate a savings of $1 million and reduce the substitute budget by $1 million.
• Reduce District costs by putting employees back to work expeditiously when cleared by OPR, savings the costs of substitutes and legal fees. Estimated savings of at least $ .5 million.
• Aggressively use mediation/arbitration in negative employment actions to reduce district’s legal fees by $1 million.
• Give no increases for selected administrators moved to new positions on June 17, 2008.
• Use dollars from the High School Redesign Project and/or the bond to fund the changes required at Spruce, and possibly Samuell and/or Comstock. (Estimated savngs for Spruce is $1.5 million)
• Trim the costs of the temporary personnel hired from Red River Staffing. (Project Manager, for example, is making $200 an hour or up to $36,000 in a single month. She is not the only person paid at this rate.)
• Encourage Dallas County School District to increase its taxes by .5 cents, for an increase in income of $4.5 million.
• Accelerate the district-wide program for increasing student attendance. (This is a significant source of additional revenue—difficult to estimate how much.)
• Flat line the central administration’s proposed 23% or $8.7 million increase in its budget. (Examples: Eliminate $1.5 million budget increase in Office of Professional Responsibility; Request that Dallas Foundation/Dallas Achieves pay for the “Financial Transformation” of $4.5 million.)
• Identify “hidden” savings the district will realize when it holds schools to the district’s staffing formula. (Examples: Supply stipends, supply costs, substitute pay, etc.)
• Report payment of STAR attendance awards in the actual year in which they will be paid into employee accounts. Estimated savings to budget of $1 million. (Attendance for employees in the 2008-09 school year cannot be calculated or paid until the 2009-2010 school year.)
• Delete “group assessment” from the contracted services budget for a savings of $1.4 million.)
• Use donated dollars to the Dallas Foundation to pay for the $2.65 million transformation management office.
• Eliminate position of chief of staff or chief transformation officer (done in part) Estimated savings of $300,000 from budget.

Submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community