DRIPPING SPRINGS — The 2023-24 Compensation Plan will bring a pay increase for Dripping Springs ISD employees across the board.

The plan, unanimously approved by the DSISD Board of Trustees on June 26, includes a 3% pay increase for teachers (based on median teacher salary) and all other employees (based on pay grade midpoint), as well as a starting pay of $30 per hour for bus drivers, $18 per hour for child nutrition staff and $16 per hour for custodial staff. A $1,000 increase to all special education stipends is also included.

“[Special education] is an area we have struggled with to recruit and retain, so we will have some of the highest special education stipends in the area, which is going to just be so helpful for our principals when they are interviewing and they are talking to those potential applicants,” said DSISD Chief Human Resources Officer Linda Hall. “That’s another reason why they are going to want to come and hopefully stay.”

It’s all about recruiting and retaining staff, restructuring the most hard-to-fill auxiliary areas and maintaining a level of competitiveness with neighboring area school districts.

“Market is the average of what’s going on around you. We are trying to move outside of the market and move into a strategic position to say we are going to pay more than the market to make sure that these critical positions, that are having a huge impact on our families, are filled,” said Superintendent Dr. Holly Morris-Kuentz. “That may mean paying a little more because they are driving through South Austin, where they can work at Chick-fil-A or somewhere else or 10 different restaurants, on their way here.”

“We are trying to do that in a number of positions so that we have cafeteria workers, bus drivers [and] bus monitors. It’s a goal of trying to make sure that we can fill some of these critical positions, but it’s going to be an over time issue to solve because we can’t get strategic everywhere in the first year,” she continued.

While there are certain positions that are harder to fill and have a higher pay increase than others, board president Stefani Reinold emphasized that every employee in DSISD is valued: “All of our staff is critical to us,” she said.

New rates went into effect on July 1. To view the full 2023-24 Compensation Plan, visit bit.ly/3NZjvI5.