At the end of the 2009-2010 school year nurses throughout SAISD learned of an inequity in pay among SAISD nurses. For nurses hired during the past three years, the district credited the nurses for their prior non-school nursing experience. However, the district did not credit nurses who were already in the district for their prior non-school nursing experience. After several meetings with Alliance leaders to discuss the inequity, nurses united and created the Nurses Task Force.
The goal of the task force was to get the district to count the prior non-school nursing experience for all nurses. After working diligently with the Alliance to put together all the facts, nurses began speaking with the Administration about these inequities. As part of the discussions, the Administration proposed putting the nurses on the “administrative programs” pay schedule, which is part of the midpoint system. However, nurses wanted to remain on the teachers’ salary schedule.
The task force realized that more needed to be done to get this issue resolved, and they began speaking with School Board members in their specific areas about the inequities. SAISD School Board President James Howard and SAISD School Board Member Olga Hernandez met directly with nurses about the inequity in pay. Then on Monday September 20, 2010, Norma Jean de Leon from Crockett Elementary, Elizabeth Solis from Margil Elementary and Naomi Cruz from Connell Middle School spoke at the School Board Meeting. Many other nurses attended the meeting and stood behind them as they spoke.
The task force asked the Board to rectify the pay inequity by compensating all nurses for their prior non-school nursing experience, not just those hired in the past three years..
At the Board meeting, the Administration proposed only giving credit for up to 10 years of non-school nursing experience and also proposed not implementing the resolution until November 1. The School Board did not agree with these ideas and voted unanimously to give all nurses credit for all of their years of experience, not just 10 years, effective at the start of this school year and to keep nurses on the teacher pay scale. All Nurse Practitioners, RNs, LVNs, Health Assistants, Physical Therapists, and Occupational Therapists will benefit from the School Board’s vote.
Watch nurses from the task force speaking to the school board:
-Norma Jean DeLeon (Crockett Elementary, 8 years as a School Nurse)
-Liz Solis (Margil Elementary, 9 years as a School Nurse)
-Naomi Cruz (Connell Middle School, 19 years as a School Nurse)