PAISD trustees support superintendent with raise
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

A recent pay raise has lifted Port Aransas Independent School District Superintendent Billy Wiggins' annual salary to $110,000 - an amount that most of the district's board of trustees say Wiggins deserves for doing a good job.

Meeting on Wednesday, July 18, trustees voted 5-1 to give Wiggins the raise. Voting yes were President Rick Adams, Mike Garlough, Margaret Price, Lorraine Stern and Ann Appling. Trustee Rita Reed voted no. Trustee Ken Dunton was absent.

"I was not against a raise for the superintendent, because my fellow board members said he met the goals they set for him last year," said Reed, who was elected to the board in May elections this year. "So, I was not against a raise, per se. I was against the amount."

Reed said she thought the proposed raise was too much. "I was looking at the salaries of all the other employees of the district," she said. She would not say how much she thought Wiggins deserved.

Reed said she was glad to see trustees grant teachers 4 percent raises, too, during the same meeting.

Before the raise, Wiggins was making $107,716 a year. His pay raise was 2.2 percent.

Asked if he had comment about his raise, Wiggins said he was glad to see all of the district's employees get raises, with the cost of living going up, especially in Port Aransas, as electric rates and gas prices rise.

"I'm pleased that the district, even though our resources are very tight, is able to accommodate a salary increase for everyone, and that includes the superintendent," Wiggins said. "I'm glad the board realizes there's a need and that the district has resources to accomplish that."

While this is the time of year trustees normally make decisions about the superintendent's salary, Wiggins said he made no recommendations or requests regarding his pay. He said he did recommend the 4 percent raises for the rest of the employees in the district.

Adams said Wiggins has done an "exemplary" job as superintendent and deserves to be paid well for it. Several weeks ago, trustees nominated Wiggins to be the Texas Association of School Boards superintendent of the year.

Trustees wrote up a document listing Wiggins' accomplishments for possible use in a nomination letter for superintendent of the year. They listed more than 100 achievements Wiggins has made as PAISD superintendent.

"Mr. Billy Wiggins embodies the spirit, intelligence, grace and ethics required to enable every staff member and student to do their best," the trustees' write-up stated. "Evidence for a better district is reflected in the high morale in staff and students, greater accountability, and outstanding principals on all three campuses that possess superb leadership skills.

"Further improvements are accentuated by a young and enthusiastic cadre of new teachers, improved test scores, and a reduction of the special education population due to a more comprehensive needs evaluation," the document said.

The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) conducts a survey each year that includes information on superintendent pay around the state. The most recent one, conducted in 2006-07, showed that the average pay raise for superintendents statewide was 4.5 percent, according to Cindy Clegg, director of human resources services at TASB.

Wiggins' $110,000 salary is not out of line with the salaries of superintendents in comparable districts, Clegg said. "I am quite certain that salary would be in a competitive range."

TASB's most recent survey showed that the average Texas superintendent's salary was $104,415, Clegg said. However, she said, it can be difficult to make solid comparisons between superintendents ' compensations because some superintendents have more experience than others and might get bonuses and retirement packages of varying amounts, plus other wild cards, while others might not.

Wiggins is beginning his fifth year as superintendent at PAISD. Previously, he was superintendent for three years at Simms ISD in Northeast Texas, and assistant superintendent for two years at Hardin-Jefferson ISD in the southeastern part of the state.

Today, Wiggins is the top administrative officer in a school district with slightly more than 100 employees, about 520 students, three schools and a budget of about $5.5 million in 2006-2007.

Wiggins' salary is higher than that of Carl A. Montoya, superintendent of the Aransas Pass Independent School District, where there are about 400 employees, six schools and the budget last year was about $16 million. Montoya makes about $94,000.

On the other hand, Wiggins makes less money than Frank Franklin, superintendent of the McMullen County Independent School District, headquartered in Tilden. Franklin makes about $114,000 a year for supervising a property-rich district with one school, 182 students, 44 employees and a budget of about $9 million. Franklin has been superintendent of the district since 1983.

Superintendents at much larger school districts make much more money.

At the Corpus Christi Independent School District, Superintendent Scott Elliff makes $185,000 a year. Robert J. Duron, superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District, commands an annual salary of $255,000.

In many ways, superintendents at smaller school districts have more challenging jobs than do their big-city counterparts, said Franklin, of McMullen County ISD.

Superintendents at smaller districts "don't have assistants to take care of this and take care of that," Franklin said. "When it gets down to the nitty-gritty, you have your hands in it at almost every level, whether you're dealing with finances, curriculum, transportation or whatever it is. … You need someone who can multitask at many different things."

Many smaller school districts don't have so many issues to wrangle with as districts in big cities. But because PAISD is a property-rich school district, the superintendent here must take on the added responsibility of dealing with complex state laws requiring property-rich districts to share large portions of tax revenue with poorer districts.

In deciding how much to pay superintendents, trustees also must consider cost of living, which is high in Port Aransas, said Adams, trustees president at PAISD. Trustees also must always bear in mind that there's a shortage of well-qualified superintendents in Texas, he said.

"If you've got a good one, you've got to do whatever you can to keep him," Adams said.

Linda Bridges, president of the Texas AFT - the American Federation of Teachers - said Wiggins' salary of $110,000 doesn't sound high for a superintendent at the helm of PAISD.

"As superintendents' salaries go, it almost sounds low," said Bridges, who is familiar with Port Aransas because she once served as a teachers' union representative in Corpus Christi. Bridges said she would have expected a salary of between $125,000 and $140,000 at PAISD.

"There's just a whole issue of competing (among school districts) for (superintendents) that can do this job," Bridges said. "There's kind of a short life expectancy for superintendents. Their tenures in districts are three to five years."

Trustees must ask themselves certain key questions when deciding on salaries for superintendents, Bridges said.

"Is it someone who has the leadership skills to move the school and the community forward?" Bridges said. "It's a matter of knowing what you're getting, and how does that pay compare to others?"

While it's important to pay a good superintendent well, it's also important that the pay not be out of balance with the pay provided to teachers in the same district, Bridges said.

"If teachers' salaries are low, then that does create resentment," Bridges said. "And I think the other thing (trustees) have to be careful about is being sure their community understands what the superintendent's responsibilities are and what he or she is doing for the money. If you can sell that, then I think you can sell whatever the salary is, and you also have to show what it's in comparison to, what other superintendents' salaries are."

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