Don't Let Coach Chambers Fool You
Coach Henry David Chambers Jr.’s Recommendation: It is recommended that the Board of Trustees consider approval of a 4% of midpoint salary increase for all eligible STAFF and a teacher starting salary $59,700 for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Speech:
Greetings, Damon Barone, Alief ISD parent, taxpayer, and alumnus.
During the June 01, 2021 school board meeting, two days before school let out for the summer, Coach Henry David Chambers Jr. gave teachers a 4% midpoint raise starting for their 2021-2022 school year, and touted on all of the hard work that our teachers have done throughout yearlong pandemic.
Let’s recap a few soundbites from the June 1st school board meeting and wave the equity wand over those statements to see if they live up to the hype or if they were just crowd noises secretly being played in Coach HD Chambers bullpen, used to confuse the fans.
Coach Henry David Chambers Jr. stated that the best way to demonstrate his appreciation to staff is to put as much money in their pockets for as long as he possibly can. If this is the formula for showing STAFF appreciation, then let us not turn a blind eye to the ways in which Coach Chambers shows self-appreciation by putting as much money in his own pockets for as long as he can.
When Doctor Luis Sterner resigned in 2010 as Alief ISD’s superintendent Dr. Sterner’s ending salary here in Alief ISD was $230,000. When Alief ISD hired baseball Coach Henry David Chambers Jr., with no teaching experience, only having a master’s degree, and having aspirations to be a politician in Austin, the district started coach Chambers off with a salary of $320,000, $90,000 higher than DOCTOR sterner. Since then, Coach Chambers has put as much of Alief’s money in his pockets as he can by increasing his annual salary each year with watered down data, hiding data, and utilizing self-evaluation metrics that are cosigned by the superintendent evaluation committee.
Coach Chamber’s base salary is now nearly $400,000. This does not include his bonuses, incentive pay for evaluation metrics he designs for himself, or reimbursements that he gets from the district. For example, on May 04, 2021 the school board approved Coach Chambers contract and he got a $15,000 lump sum bonus for losing over 3,561 students and losing hundreds of teachers throughout this academic school year, while he worked from home and continued pursuing his aspirations to be a politician in Austin.
28 days after receiving his $15,000 bonus, On June 01, 2021, when Alief staff thought that Coach HD Chambers was celebrating you all’s 4% raises, he was actually celebrating the fact that the school board’s vote for raises had put another $16,000 in his pocket because his nearly $400,000 annual salary was also included in the statement of teachers and STAFF. Coach Chambers is also a STAFF member of Alief ISD too. In a 28-day span, our beloved baseball coach made $31,000 upfront money while seeking and losing his efforts to try and become HISD’s new superintendent just 17 days after the board voted to put $15,000 of our tax money in his pocket during the May 07, 2021 school board meeting.
For the 2020-2021 academic school year Houston Independent School District (HISD) had 196,943 students. DOCTOR Grenita Lathom was paid $345, 060; which is $36,255 less than what Alief ISD is paying COACH Henry David Chambers Jr. HISD also had 154,812 more students than Alief ISD (HISD 196,943 vs. Alief ISD 42,131).
Now let’s wave the equity wand over the smoke and mirrors of the illustrious 4% midpoint increase.
· As a district teacher if you are fortunate enough to be making $56,000 per year your 4% raise will give you a total of $2,240 spread out over 24 paychecks, that’s an extra $93.00 per pay period before taxes.
· Although the pay increase is being presented as a raise for teachers who have worked hard teaching online and in the classrooms simultaneously, administrators that have been working from home for the past year, who have been isolated in their offices all year, or haven’t had any interactions with students or parents, received that same 4% raise on top of their already higher salaries than educators and staff members who have had direct interactions with students all year.
During the June 01, 2021 school board meeting there was also a lot of talk about TRS, the teacher retirement system, so I’ll breakdown how Coach HD Chambers’ sacrifice fly ball play actually works. While everyone’s eyes are focused on the play at first base, disguised as teacher appreciation, our beloved Coach is coming off of third base trying to slide into home plate with as much money in his pocket as possible for his TRS benefits.
TRS pays its beneficiaries according to the three highest salaries the beneficiary receives throughout their tenure in education. Thus, even if Coach HD Chambers leaves Alief ISD and accepts his old coaching job making $35,000 per year TRS will pay him according to his highest three annual salary amounts, which happen to all be here in Alief ISD.
Now let’s go back to Coach HD Chambers sound bite and CHANGE ONE WORD to put this all in perspective, “the best way to demonstrate your appreciation for YOURSELF is to put as much money in MY OWN pocket for as long as I possibly can.” Coach HD Chambers is the only STAFF member which he is really worried about, the rest of you all are just sacrifice fly balls who get a base or two by default while he heads for home plate and exits the game to victimize his next school district or politician position.
In the late-great words of Bob Marley, “Don’t let ‘em fool ya, oh no!”
6% of Alief ISD students (7,410) are 3-4 academic grade levels behind.
8% of Asian students (394) in Alief ISD are 3-4 academic grade levels behind.
17% of African American (2,137) students in Alief ISD are 3-4 academic grade levels behind.
17% of White (260) students in Alief ISD are 3-4 academic grade levels behind.
18% of Hispanic (4,619) students in Alief ISD are 3-4 academic grade levels behind.
2010-2011 45,830 Alief Students (loss of 248 students from previous year)
2011-2012 45,464 Alief Students (loss of 366 students from previous year)
2012-2013 45,773 Alief Students (Increase of 309 students from previous year)
2013-2014 46,313 Alief Students (Increase of 540 students from previous year)
2014-2015 47,376 Alief Students (Increase of 1063 students from previous year)
2015-2016 47,316 Alief Students (loss of 60 students from previous year)
2016-2017 46,531 Alief Students (loss of 785 students from previous year)
2017-2018 46,431 Alief Students (loss of 100 students from previous year)
2018-2019 45,561 Alief Students (loss of 870 students from previous year)
2019-2020 45,692 Alief Students (Increase of 131 students from previous year)
2020-2021 42,131 Alief Students (loss of 3,561 students from previous year)
Alief ISD loss a total of 5,185 students in the last five academic school years
For the 2020-2021 academic school year Houston Independent School District (HISD) had 196,943 students. DOCTOR Grenita Lathom was paid $345, 060. This is $36,255 less than what Alief ISD is paying COACH Henry David Chambers Jr. HISD also had 154,812 more students than Alief ISD (HISD 196,943 vs. Alief ISD 42,131).
Honorable mention sound bites that did not make this patron presentation due to time constraints:
· Board President Annie Joseph Williams asked (an empty board room) if you (staff) wanted the long term or the short-term solutions (pertaining to pay increases vs stipends)?
If this is truly the mindset of President Annie Joseph Williams and the school board then why do they keep throwing long term money with these higher brand-new teacher salaries at short term teachers who continue to leave our district in 1-3 years, all while the school board and district leadership continues to throw short-term money at the long-time teachers who have put their blood sweat and tears into educating our kids?
Slide of Hand Insurance Talk:
Insurance premiums for employee only plans may not increase but the family plan premiums may increase. Who just has themselves on their health insurance plans? Most teachers that have been in the district beyond 3 years have children or spouse, thus employee only plans wouldn’t benefit them. The district can also change your network providers, causing your doctors to become out of network.