Megan Navarro
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Dripping Springs ISD is working to stay competitive with neighboring districts, as it will be implementing general pay increases for its currently employed staff.
The Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees discussed the 2026-27 compensation plan, along with general pay increases that coincide, during its Monday, May 18, meeting. According to chief Human Resources officer Linda Hall, the compensation plan reflects a 0.5% increase to the minimum, midpoint and maximums, allowing DSISD to “stay competitive” with new hires coming in.
With last year’s Teacher Retention Allotment (TRA) — at $2,500 for teachers with three and four years of experience, as well as $5,000 for those with at least five years — it made a substantial increase to the teacher pay scale, Hall explained. Approximately 6-8% is what DSISD teachers saw for their increase last year; however, looking at that percentage compared to the administrative professional and other pay grades, they are not matching.
“What that does is we are now seeing some challenges when we have people who are coming off the teacher pay scale and want to move to the administrative professional scale; they are not increasing at the same rate,” Hall noted. “It’s a little bit of a challenge in that they may either … not see as much of an increase as they were hoping or they may not see an increase at all.”
DSISD is still doing everything it can to keep it competitive, said Hall: “It’s a fantastic thing to pay our teachers as much as we can. It’s just that we can not make that same incremental increase to the administrative professional scale.”
Trustee Dr. Mary Jane Hetrick shared that this issue has been recognized by other school districts across the state, as the superintendent with Lorena ISD, for example, has gone before the Texas House Committee on Public Education to speak on midsized school districts. Hetrick said that there are “exceptional teachers who would make exceptional interventionists [and] instructional specialists,” yet they are choosing not to for the reason of pay disparity.
Trustee Rob McClelland pointed out that there are other school districts in the surrounding area faced with difficult decisions, such as closing multiple campuses, the uncertainty of this year's budget and significantly reducing the size of their workforce.
Along with the 0.5% increase included in the compensation plan, the board unanimously approved a 1% general pay increase based on the midpoint for returning staff, including teachers, auxiliary, child nutrition, transportation, clerical/technical and administrative/professional.
The board also heard an updated presentation on the facility that would house the district’s special education and adult transition services 18+ program.
This follows an earlier presentation in March, in which the board was informed that the construction timeline, as it was at that time, was delayed and the team had to go back to the drawing board to determine cost-saving measures. The trustees opted to give direction to only have one General Maximum Price (GMP), rather than two.
Now, the construction documents schedule has been compressed to where they were completed May 8 to give Swinerton, construction manager at risk (CMAR), more time to go out to subtrades in the market to get the best possible pricing, explained Darrell Pearson of PBK Architects. This is also to ensure that the GMP will still be delivered, completed and presented to the school board in June.
Pearson continued, emphasizing that the team ensured that the educational spaces, functionality of the building and aesthetics remain as intended because those are non-negotiables.
“I do want people to understand that the programs and the spaces are what we want to hold onto and the functionality of the building because … there are [specific] needs that go on in this program and we need to make sure that we keep those in place,” said trustee Tricia Quintero.
However, Pearson said, there are cost reduction strategies that went into the site and building plans, which include:
• Reducing parking and drives
• Reconfigure parking and drives to avoid retaining walls and cut/fill of hillside
• Relocate building to avoid cut/fill
• Remove/simplify utilities
• Remove items that can be added later: outdoor yard and fencing, greenhouse, rainwater collection system, golf cart path/parking and reduce canopy system
• Use wood frame construction
• Simplify building foundation
• Reduce height of building
• Utilize all one roofing system
• Change to split-system heating, ventilation and air conditioning
• Utilize efficient finishes
• Remove folding panel wall, which can be added later
Quintero said that the greenhouse is currently pulled from the project, but there is potential for alternative funding for that. She did question if the fencing, however, could be paid for out of the safety allotment.
Superintendent Dr. Holly Morris-Kuentz said that there could be potential for that, but it is a reimbursement, so the district would have to look at that and it depends on at what point if there are still grant funds available at that time.
The project is still expected to be complete by the end of the year. Ultimately, the board unanimously approved the revised construction documents.
To listen to the full meeting, visit www.dsisdtx.us/page/board-meeting-livestream.
The DSISD Board of Trustees meets next at 2 p.m. June 15 for its agenda review meeting.
