Dickinson school district boosts teacher pay

DICKINSON —Dickinson teachers, including those who are fresh from college and have no experience, just earned a pay raise for the upcoming school year.

With little discussion, Dickinson’s board of trustees unanimously approved salary increases last week, saying the hike, which starts at $2,500 for first-year teachers, will help make the district more competitive in recruiting educators.

“We’ve talked about this for a long time,” said trustee Ken Bowen. “I think we ought to do it.”

Dickinson, which is among the first to set its pay rate for the upcoming 2008-09 school year, vaulted its first-year salary to $43,500, placing the figure among the highest of the nine independent school districts in Galveston County.

“With a little over a $52 million budget, we added a little over $1 million for support of our classroom teachers,” said Leland Williams, the district’s superintendent.

Tammy Dowdy, the district’s spokeswoman, said the early salary increase could give administrators a slight advantage at upcoming job fairs in April.

“We’ll hit several colleges within a week or two,” Dowdy said. “And it helps with recruiting if you can tell a graduate, ‘Look here. This is what you’ll make,’ especially if other districts have not approved theirs.”

Dowdy said she didn’t know whether Dickinson was one of the first districts to approve salary increases for next year, but human resources administrators requested the early increase from the board for recruiting.

Finding and retaining quality teachers is a highly competitive process, Dowdy said.

“We’ll be able to say, ‘This is what we can guarantee you,’” Dowdy said. “It’s not easy when you’re trying to find the best, especially in certain areas, when you’re fighting with a zillion other school districts looking for the same thing.”

The increases at Dickinson place the district well above the state-mandated minimum of $27,320 for the 2006-07 school year, the most recent statistics available, said Suzanne Marchman, a spokeswoman with the Texas Education Agency.

The state average for teacher salaries is $44,897, Marchman said. A statewide average for first-year teachers wasn’t available.

Dickinson’s salary increases don’t include stipends in curriculum areas that are hard to recruit teachers for, Dowdy said. Math and science teachers will have the same $3,500 stipend as bilingual teachers, she said.

“It will be paid out just like salary over the course of a year,” Dowdy said. “It goes up in years 10 through 20 to $4,500 and 21 or more years to $5,000.”

Dickinson also provides stipends that reward teachers for their loyalty, which could add up to a maximum of $4,100 for teachers who have been with the district 40 years.

“I really like this reward for staying,” said Fritzie Samford, president of the board. “I think it’s a bit of encouragement.”

Reporter Chris Paschenko can be reached at 409-683-5337 or chris.paschenko(at)galvnews.com.

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Pay grade

The following is a list of annual salaries of what first-year teachers fresh out of college with no experience are paid for the 2007-08 school year at eight of the nine independent school districts in Galveston County. Figures for High Island weren’t immediately available. Dickinson recently increased to $43,500 for the 2008-09 school year.

$42,745 — Texas City

$42,000 — Clear Creek

$41,500 — Galveston

$41,000 — Friendswood

$41,000 — Dickinson

$40,000 — Hitchcock

$40,000 — La Marque

$40,000 — Santa Fe