The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Personnel matters loomed large at a budget study meeting of the Bridge City Independent School District Board of Trustees on Monday night.

Superintendent Mike King reported personnel costs take up 70 percent of the budget.

A proposed compensation plan would give employees a three percent raise on the midpoint for all pay scales which roughly equals to $1,300 per teacher. It will cost a total of $460,000 for the three percent across the board raise.

The salary for beginning teachers will increase $500 at $35,000 a year.

King said the salaries are still low compared to other districts but they’re making progress. He would also like to compare health care costs and comparable school districts’ pay in Region 5.

One Full Time Employee consists of a teacher to two teacher aids in BCISD. Currently, BCISD is over their FTE count at 3.5 which is the lowest the district has been. The count was at double digits at one time. The number was lowered through attrition.

The state eliminated a Pre-Kindergarten grant in 2011 and it will now be funded by local funds. The district decided to continue with a full-day Pre-K. King believes the full-day is beneficial to students and helps them move forward.

The board decided to hold their next meeting in July after the date teachers can get out of their contracts freely to make other personnel decisions.

BC Superintendent Mike King

In other business, Trustee Rebecca Rutledge said some parents told her they were concerned about their children not making good marks on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam.

King replied ninth grade students are the first to take the new exam which will replace the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam. The students’ math and science scores were actually higher than their English scores and met minimum standards.

On the other hand, the 10th and 11th grade scores on TAKS this year were excellent.

Lastly, John Bernard of ABC Construction Center in Nederland will donate equipment and material at the end of July for the new vocational building at Bridge City High School.