Judge rules McAllen school district must pay scheduled raises

McALLEN — The McAllen school district violated state law when it failed to give required pay raises to many of its teachers and other employees last year, a Texas Education Agency judge ruled earlier this week.

Nearly a year after the McAllen teachers union filed its grievance, Administrative Law Judge Christopher Maska recommended on Monday that the financially strapped district make back payments for scheduled raises for the 2009-2010 school year.

If the state’s education commissioner affirms the decision, qualifying employees could each receive about $600 to $1,000 from the McAllen school district, which already struggled to fill budget holes this summer.

"This is the first time we have filed a grievance like this and won," said Ruth Skow, president of the McAllen Federation of Teachers, Local 6329. "When I filed the grievance in September … we were asking for payments for all qualifying employees, not just members of the (union)."

Skow said she was unsure if Maska’s recommendation required raises for just educators or full-time librarians, speech pathologists, nurses and counselors as well.

In a letter to district employees released Friday, Superintendent James Ponce said his office would file its disagreements with the decision, which, if accepted, could further strain the school system’s current and future budget.

"We are proceeding with extreme caution because we want to minimize the impact to campuses, employees and students," Ponce said. "We will respond with our noted exceptions to (Maska’s) ruling."

At issue is the district’s stance that it fulfilled all legal obligations when it granted state-mandated pay raises of $1,000. The union, however, argued its members were due more money under a local salary schedule established in 2008.

That "step increase" schedule requires an additional raise based on years of service, but the district claims it never agreed to that. Maska’s ruling, however, states he found a document entitled "2008-2009 Salary Schedule" on the district’s own website.

As of Friday, that section of the website was no longer retrievable.

A final decision requiring back payments could upset the district’s precariously balanced 2009-2010 budget, which forced officials to address a more than $95,000 deficit. Referencing a state aid bill recently passed by Congress, Ponce said funds intended for Texas schools could provide a short-term solution.

Last year, the district faced a $6.7 million deficit, part of which came from the $4 million construction of three new activity centers. Officials had hoped to offset the costs with the sale of surplus properties, which ultimately fell through due to an economic slump.

Skow said the district should not have spent money she says was owed to its employees.

"Other districts followed their pay raises and had wise budgets," Skow said. "(The McAllen school system) just depended on the idea to hope to sell the buildings and eventually couldn’t fill that budget hole.

"The district should have developed a budget around those salaries instead," she said.