While the district is experiencing slower enrollment growth than years prior, concentrated growth in the northwest quadrant and a rise in the special education population still holds the bulk of the staffing demand at KISD, officials said at the March 31 board meeting.
The gist
KISD trustees approved a plan to hire 262 additional staff members for the 2025-26 school year during the meeting.
The request is slightly less from last year’s ask for 306.5 additional staff members due to what Chief Human Resources Officer Brian Schuss called a “low-growth year.” Although he assured trustees staffing standards haven’t changed for KISD despite budget constraints.
“It's a low-growth year, not really a time to be adjusting standards as well as we all understand where we are with budget constraints and school finance currently,” Schuss said at the March 24 meeting.
Schuss said officials have determined the following staffing demands to accommodate about 524 more students next year:
- 203 campus staff including teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals
- 59 support staff, including food service, custodial, educational support, diagnosticians and speech language pathologists
KISD’s student enrollment has grown by over 14,870 students, or 18.6%, in the past five school years—more than any other school district in the Houston area over that time period, demographers said at the November board meeting.
However, officials said the growth wasn't districtwide but mostly in the northwest and southwest portions of the district.
Schuss said the district has experienced slower enrollment growth since the 2024-25 school year. Demographers predict an increase of about 524 students next year, versus a 1,852 enrollment rise between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.
Meanwhile, district officials are attempting to balance the demand for the growing special education population while being mindful of budgetary constraints, Schuss said. Just over 18.5% of students are receiving special education services in the 2024-25 school year, a growing number mirroring a trend from neighboring districts.
Certified teachers and paraprofessionals servicing special education students account for almost 50% of the additional elementary and secondary staff requested for 2025-26, Schuss said.
Additionally, the district will hire less than the estimated 274 positions needed to staff Boundy Elementary School, Cross Elementary School and Freeman High School in the 2025-26 school year, Schuss said.
“We're requesting less than what it's taking to staff those campuses, which shows that in large part, those campuses are being staffed with existing staff members in the district,” Schuss said.
Boundy and Cross elementaries are set to open this August. Both schools were projects under the November 2023 bond’s Proposition A, which approved the use of $296.84 million to alleviate the capacity challenges on existing campuses on the northwest quadrant of the district.
Freeman, also in the northwest quadrant, opened in August and is currently home to ninth-10th grades, but the campus will add 11th grade in the 2026-25 school year and 12th grade by 2026-27, Community Impact reported.
Moving forward
If the Legislature makes a contribution to staffing, then district officials will bring a new staffing plan to the board, Schuss said.
“If the state Legislature ... does give public schools additional funding that actually does impact our bottom line in the next couple of months, we may be coming back to you with additional special education support for our campuses,” he said.
The Texas House Public Education Committee scheduled a hearing April 3 for House Bill 2, which proposes approximately $615 million to special education funding in the 2025-26 school year and a $220 raise to the basic allotment for all students, according to the drafted bill.
