Superintendent for teacher’s salary increase
San Jacinto Newstimes - October 2007

COLDSPRING – Residents in the Coldspring-Oakhurst Consolidated Independent School District will decide in a Nov. 6 election if they want a proposed property tax rate of $1.24 or a rollback rate of $1.09. Although the choice looks simple, if the proposed $1.24 rate fails, low salaries of about 148 teachers could continue to plague the district, according to Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD Superintendent Dr. Lynn Cummins.

If the proposed property tax rate of $1.24 per $100 valuation is approved by voters, Cummins said he will recommend to the school board that money generated from the tax rate will be used to give teachers in the school district a $4,000 salary increase each.

The proposed rate could generate an additional $1.4 to $1.6 million to meet the salary increases and the amount needed to fund benefit packages for each teacher.

By approving the $1.24 proposed tax rate the district will retain an additional $.07 from the 2006-2007 budget from Hurricane Rita totaling $434,287.87 and receive an additional $0.08 totaling $443,298,05, amounting to a total taxpayer’s efforts totaling $877,585.92 over the amount that would be generated from the $1.09 rollback tax rate. The state would then kick-in estimated additional revenues of $821,456.00 as a reward for collecting the maximum tax allocated for a total increase from state and local tax revenues of $1.699, 041 according to Cummins.

Cummins said teachers in the Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD are among the lowest paid in the surrounding area.

“Beginning teachers in Livingston start out with $33,600; in Shepherd they start with $35,245 and in Willis they start with $36,425. In Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD a beginning teacher makes $32,000,” Cummins said. “This means we train them and they move on where they can make more money, giving us a high teacher turnover rate and less qualified teachers.”

If the property tax rate election is not approved the district will be able to operate on the rollback rate of $1.09 per $100 valuation but teachers will be left with salaries among the lowest in the area, according to Cummins.

“It will not be all gloom and doom. The district will continue to operate,” Cummins said.

In August board members adopted the 2007-2008 school district budget totaling $14,634,093. That budget was passed unanimously by board members attending the meeting – Mark Allen, Berlin Bradford, Dale Richards, Fred Taylor and Janice Wyatt. The same board members unanimously approved adoption of the proposed $1.24 total tax rate at the same meeting . Board members not attending the meeting were Gale Altman and David Swanson.

If your property values did not increase this year, a home valued at $40,000 would cost $85.80 less than last year with the proposed $1.24 tax rate. Taxes on a home valued at $110,000 would cost $235.95 less in taxes than last year with the proposed tax rate if your property values did not increase this year, according to Cummins.

Overall, property values increased in San Jacinto County this year.

In the school district the total taxable value of all property went from $574,071,812 in 2006 to $629,438,900 in 2007, giving the district $55,367,088 in additional property value for taxing purposes.

Cummins said he feels certain the school board will take his recommendation to use the additional money generated from the proposed $1.24 tax rate, if approved, and use it for teacher salary increases.

During a public meeting held last week to discuss the Nov. 6 election, a comment was made to use some of the money and purchase a few new school buses. During that meeting a proposed teacher salary schedule was passed out indicating that teachers with 0 to 8 years of experience would get a $4,000 salary increase; teachers with 9 years of experience would get $3,500; teachers with 10 years experience would get a salary increase of $3,000; teachers with 11 years experience would get $2,500; teachers with 12 and 13 years experience would get $2,000; teachers with 14 years experience would get $1,500; teachers with 15 years experience would get $1,000 and teachers with 16 to 21 years experience would get a  $500 salary increase.

“I had many calls after that meeting from people in the community saying if we would increase the salary of each teacher by $4,000 and purchase buses later they could vote for the tax rate rollback election,” Cummins said.

“That’s what I am recommending to the board,” he said.

Early voting for the tax rate rollback election started Monday and will continue through Nov. 2, from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. weekdays in the administration building across the street from the Coldspring Post Office.