It’s official! Dublin Independent School District employees will receive additional pay in the upcoming year in the form of an efficiency payment for all and a retention payment for teachers.
The board unanimously voted at its Monday, Sept. 19 board meeting to put the two payments into place for 202223.
In November, all employees will see an efficiency payment based on number of years worked in the district.
Those who have worked at DISD for five years or less will receive $750, 6-10 will receive $1,000, 11-15 years will received $15,00, 16-20 years will receive $2,000 and those working more than 21 years will receive $2,500.
In August 2023, all returning contracted teachers for the 2023-24 school year will receive $1,000.
“This is really fantastic! It’s a monumental thing to be able to do this for our employees,” School Board Trustee Bill Rodriguez said.
Administration and school board members voted to begin the slow process of researching the possibility of going to a 4-day school week next year.
“We don’t want to rush into this,” Superintendent Melissa Summers said. “We want to be transparent and receive feedback from the community and parents.”
Summers said in the past, only smaller districts had moved to a four day week but recently larger districts such as Mineral Wells ISD had also made the move to shorter school weeks.
Traditionally, schools with shorter weeks attend Monday through Thursday with longer school days and potentially a week longer in the year.
“Our school days would probably be comparable to our schedule from last year,” Summers said.
The move to shorter school weeks is made in many cases to retain teachers.
“We are educating kids but we are also a daycare,” School board member Pat Leatherwood said.
Rodriguez asked if that extra day could potentially be used for tutoring or additional education for those needing extra help.
Summers said she was interested to see data from students attending shorter weeks to see if there was an impact on learning before a decision was made.
“Let’s explore it and get some feedback,” School Board President Bob Cervetto said.
The district also received its report on delinquent property tax collections from McCreary, Veselka, Bragg and Allen, P.C. who represent the district for tax collections.
From 2018-2021, the district collected more than 100% of owed taxes including penalties and interest, attorney Robert Meyers told the board.
“It’s really a reflection on the community that they make sure the district has the money they need to operate,” he said.
Already for this year, 98% of taxes have been paid.
Summers updated the board on enrollment numbers which keep increasing.
“We got new students today,” she said.
So far, the district has 56 more students from last year’s enrollment numbers to this year.
Summers also updated the board on purchasing a new bus and new SUV for the school along with 28 new air conditioning units to finish out improvements at the elementary school.