ABC7 I-Team Report: YISD And SISD Staff Salaries

The Ysleta and Socorro Independent School Districts have a comparable amount of students and staff. They’ve also got similar academic standings. However, YISD has about twice as many administrators making six figure salaries as SISD according to data sheets submitted by each district.

SISD superintendent Dr. Xavier de la Torre said one of the reasons for the difference in the amount of top earning staffers is that SISD has about 20 fewer campuses than YISD, which means they require less administrators. He said SISD employees are generally not paid as well as their contemporaries in other districts but are offered benefits like a comprehensive health care plan.

“We want to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” said de la Torre. “You’re going to have the need for leadership and supervision. (SISD) simply decided we can do it with less people.”

YISD released a statement to ABC-7 regarding the I-Team’s findings:

“Ysleta ISD formulates its compensation schedule and organizational charts based on best practices, needs of the District, and formal staffing studies by the Texas Association of School Boards. For the past seven years Ysleta ISD has received the highest (Superior) rating by the Texas Education Agency’s financial integrity rating of Texas Schools. For that same time period Ysleta ISD’s administrative costs have always been under the allowable amount as stated by TEA and verified by external auditors. The current TEA allowable ratio of administrative costs for Ysleta ISD is 11.05% and Ysleta is operating at 6.6% for administrative costs. Ysleta ISD enjoys a great reputation as being an outstanding District. Consequently, many people make the District their life long career site, thus a number of administrators have extensive experience which places them at a higher rate of pay because of their longevity”.