Superintendent’s salary below state average, raise above

The $205,000 annual salary that BISD Superintendent Hector Gonzales receives is lower than his peers’ average, according to a survey released this week by the Texas Association of School Boards.

Gonzales’ salary compares to an average of $263,240 for districts with more than 50,000 students. Enrollment records show that the Brownsville Independent School District passed the 50,000 threshold this year.

The BISD board of trustees in October raised Gonzales’ salary slightly more than 10 percent, from $185,000 annually to $205,000. The raise compares favorably to that given to other superintendents, which averaged 4.6 percent statewide.

Of the 1,031 public school districts in Texas that received the survey, 829 responded, representing 80 percent of districts in the state. Thirty-six of the 829 responding districts reported an interim superintendent and were not included in analyzing the data. BISD confirmed that it participated in the survey.

“You have to take into account that we started him off very low when we hired him,” BISD board President Enrique Escobedo said of Gonzales’ salary.

“Even though I’d like to see all of our employees at state average or above, the question I have to answer is: Do I give him a fair and just increase or conserve taxpayer dollars?” Escobedo said of Gonzales’ salary and subsequent increase. “I think the board reached a happy median.”

The board hired Gonzales as superintendent in November 2006 after earlier naming him interim superintendent. Gonzales served as assistant superintendent of operations under the previous superintendent, Michael Zolkoski. Gonzales has more than 27 years experience as an administrator across South Texas and more than 11 years in BISD.

“Speaking for myself and not for the board, I think Hector Gonzales is doing a very good job,” Escobedo said, referring to a recent survey by Texas Monthly and the National Center for Educational Accountability that singled out 14 schools in Brownsville as “higher performing.”

“In the day-to-day operations, it’s not that easy to run a district this size,” Escobedo said.

When Zolkoski originally was hired away from the Judson school district in San Antonio, BISD made him the highest paid superintendent in district history at $195,000 a year, according to The Brownsville Herald’s archives. Before he left, Zolkoski was earning $208,000 a year.

Trustees also extended Gonzales’ three-year contract by one year, gave him a $500 per month vehicle allowance and amended his contract to include written performance benchmarks. The performance benchmarks are to be developed jointly by Dec. 21.

According to the survey, 49 percent of districts provide vehicle allowances and 6 percent awarded a retention or performance bonus of some kind.

At the time, Gonzales said he welcomed the performance benchmarks “because they give us targets.”