The district’s board of trustees approved the payments at an Oct. 24 meeting.
How it works
In December, full-time employees will receive a one-time payment of $1,000, while part-time employees will receive $500 payments.
These payments, which LISD has also distributed in previous school years, are intended to reduce turnover and retain staff while improving employee morale, according to district documents.
The backstory
The district adopted an $8.13 million increase to its compensation plan for the 2024-25 school year, including a 2.5% pay raise for all staff members.
The compensation plan allowed the board to approve one-time payments for staff if they did not “create a financial hardship for the district,” Chief Financial Officer Pete Pape said.
LISD does not expect that the $5.5 million in one-time payments will cause such hardship due to the current state of its fund balance, Pape said. The district’s $185 million fund balance is $70 million larger than 25% of its operating budget, which is the amount recommended by the Texas Education Agency, district documents state.
In case you missed it
For fiscal year 2024-25, the district adopted a $460.36 million operating budget with a nearly $13.1 million shortfall and is projecting an almost $30 million shortfall for the following fiscal year.
District officials have pointed to state and federal funding cuts, and expressed frustration over state lawmakers not increasing the basic allotment of funding per student since 2019.
