Aldine ISD staff and union urge board to revisit new pay scale for specialists

Dozens of Aldine Independent School District employees and union leaders told the board of trustees on Aug. 19 that a recently adopted administrative professional pay scale reduces compensation for instructional specialists and related roles and should be reexamined. Dr. Shakita Sanders, a math instructional specialist, and Candace Houston, president of Aldine AFT, urged the board to review the compensation manual and restore pay parity.

Dr. Shakita Sanders, a math instructional specialist at an Aldine middle school, said the change “felt like the system was telling me that my time, my sacrifice, my commitment weren't worth this much.” She told the board she and colleagues accepted extra work and longer hours for the role but that the new scale moved some positions off the teacher pay scale and limited raises to about 1 percent.

Why it matters: district staff said the scale affects positions that work longer calendars or take on added responsibilities to support classrooms and compliance. Candace Houston, president of Aldine AFT, said the scale undercuts morale and retention and urged the board to review the manual with “transparency, listen to those most affected, and make adjustments that reflect fairness and equity.”

Details provided to the board included salary and calendar comparisons and anecdotal estimates of turnover risks. Written comments read into the record by board secretary Miss Loera included a submitted statement from Jay LeBlanc, who described a change that shifted diagnosticians off the teacher pay scale and said the district’s implementation delivered about a $700 raise to some specialists while a beginning teacher would have received roughly $5,000 under the teacher scale. LeBlanc warned that the change could cause a 20 to 30 percent loss of diagnosticians next year and said staff were notified of the change after an “acceptable resignation date.”

Candace Houston cited concrete differences in the new scale: she said an “information literacy specialist” on the new schedule starts at $63,441 while a first‑year certified teacher starts at $64,000; she also noted specialists work 190 days compared with 187 days for teachers. Houston said those differences, combined with narrower raises, send a message that specialists’ work is “disposable,” hurting recruitment and retention.

Discussion versus decision: speakers used the public comment period to press the board for changes. The board did not take immediate action in the meeting to reverse the pay schedule; public‑comment rules under the Open Meetings Act were read aloud at the start of the period, and trustees did not respond to public questions during the session.

What’s next: Aldine AFT requested a transparent review and adjustments to the compensation manual. At the same meeting the board approved a separate administrative policy action regarding compensation (DEC local on compensation and benefits, leaves and absences) by vote; speakers and commenters told the board that the policy-level action and the new pay scale together created the concern. The union asked the board to revisit the pay scale and to engage directly with affected staff before the next school year.