Megan Navarro
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Staff across Dripping Springs ISD will receive an increase in their salary.
At its Aug. 25 meeting, the DSISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved the 2025-26 Compensation Plan, which includes salary increases for all staff across the district, aimed at recognizing the exceptional work of the staff and supporting employee retention, according to the district.
“All of these adjustments are going to help us to stay competitive with our neighbors, but also just help us not only attract high-quality candidates, but really reward and retain our fantastic staff,” presented Linda Hill, chief Human Resources director. “We want people to stay here in Dripping Springs ISD.”
Salary increases for teachers with three or more years of experience were funded through House Bill 2 (HB 2), passed by the Texas Legislature in the 89th legislative session earlier this year. Teachers with five or more years of experience will receive a $5,000 salary increase, while teachers with three to four years will receive a $2,500 increase.
While teachers with one to two years of experience were not included in HB 2, they will receive a $1,700 increase funded by DSISD. Additionally, the starting teacher salary for the district will increase by $500 to $56,000.
“We are super excited. We know that we can never pay our teachers enough, but we are excited to be able to see a significant increase for those teachers,” Hall said.
All other employee groups will receive a 3% midpoint salary increase.
“For our employees who are on pay scale, so that’s a clerical, technical or auxiliary administrative professional, all of those pay scales, we are looking at the 3% midpoint salary increase,” Hall explained. “But then, additionally, working with finance, he’s been able to adjust all of those scales, so all of those minimum, midpoint and maximums are going to reflect a 1.5% over last year’s scales.”
Trustee Mary Jane Hetrick shared that there was a budget collaboration committee earlier this year charged with finding any big expenditures that could be cut to allow for more funds to go toward teacher pay, but, after months of review, there was nothing found of substance. She encouraged everyone to continue talking to state leaders on school district funding.
“We are doing what we can and it’s just a reminder to keep talking to our legislators about the reality on the ground,” Hetrick said. “This last session, even though there was this historic investment in teacher pay, there were also a plethora of bills that have unfunded or underfunded mandates, so that’s more costs for us to absorb.”
Another trustee, Rob McClelland, pointed out that the district did not commit any local funds — which were used for the increase in starting teacher salary and those with one to two years of experience as they were not included in HB 2 — for steps three through 26. This is due to DSISD still paying money to the state, also known as recapture.
“We are doing this and we need to do it and we need to continue to do it, but we still have this crippling requirement on this district that prevents us from getting to where I think we can get,” he said. “So, we will keep fighting that fight. On behalf of all of you teachers out there [and] on behalf of all the staff, the deck is stacked in that regard. We’ll keep fighting.”
He also shared, though, that DSISD is making some headway and the salary increases in the compensation plan affirm a goal to keep the best teachers in our classroom for as long as possible.
This compensation plan also follows the board’s adoption of the 2025-26 fiscal year budget in June, which allocates 83% of the general fund budget, excluding recapture, to payroll expenses for nearly 1,200 employees.
The board will meet next at 2 p.m. Sept. 15 for its agenda review meeting and then at 6 p.m. Sept. 22 for its regular meeting.
To view the compensation plan and other agenda documents, visit bit.ly/4n2liuW.
