Booming applause greets TISD pay raise announcement - KTRE.com | Lufkin and Nacogdoches, Texas

Teachers and faculty boomed in applause in Thursday's Tyler ISD Board meeting when they approved to raise salaries in the school district.

According to Superintendent of Tyler ISD Gary Mooring, administration has had their salaries frozen for the past four years and staff and teachers have had their salaries frozen for three years because of state budget cuts.

"Several years ago the state in the last biennium cut money to all the districts, and all the education by about $5 billion. We were cut about $10 million here in Tyler," said Mooring.

As a result from these budget cuts, Tyler ISD decided to freeze payrolls as opposed to reducing their staff. 

Now that the state has declared the economy is more stable, they can give back to the districts, Tyler ISD will increase their district salaries.

"The state has come back, the legislature met and just adjourned in June and fortunately the economy is to the point that they were able to give back to the districts about sixty or seventy percent of the money they cut previously," said Mooring.

With the money coming back to the school district, Mooring said they wanted to first address pay raises for teachers and staff.

Mooring explains that the pay raises will not affect tax payers.

"It has to do with additional revenue generated by sales tax and other things because the economy has improved and there's a lot of things in the state budget and the revenue increases based upon the economy. So if it goes down, our revenue goes down and if it goes up, it goes up", said Mooring.

Mooring explained further, "The administration has had their pay frozen for four years and then the staff and the teachers for three years without pay raises. That was brought out several years ago when the state in the last biennium cut money to all the districts and all the education by about $5 billion and we were cut about $10 million here in Tyler. With having to make those cuts and not having to lose staff we chose to freeze those pays as opposed to reducing our staff. So the state has come back, the legislature met and just adjourned in June and fortunately the economy is to the point they were able to give back to the districts about sixty or seventy percent of the money they cut previous. And with that we were in a position that the first thing we wanted to address was pay raises for teachers and staff."

He added, "It's a great feeling; I mean, these people have worked so hard and to go three or four years without the additional money and to be frozen, to be able to come back and offer a really nice pay raise and be able to emphasize that to the teachers is wonderful. It excites me."

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