The Humble ISD board of trustees unanimously approved a $549.6 million budget for the 2021-22 school year at a special called meeting June 15.
The budget, which includes the general fund, the child nutrition fund and debt service fund, is operating on about $550.6 million in revenue, leaving the district with a surplus of a little more than $1 million for the coming school year.
In the last fiscal year, the district's approved budget for 2020-21did not include employee raises due to the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. This fiscal year, however, the district’s budget includes a 3% average raise for all employees, a $1,400 retention stipend added to base pay for teachers, a $1,000 stipend for other staff and raises the minimum hourly wage for full-time auxiliary staff members to $11.50. The district is also bumping its starting teacher salary from $56,700 to $59,000 annually.
HISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen lauded the additional compensation included in the new budget during the June 15 meeting.
“Last year was a very uncertain year when we ended the year in the COVID[-19] lockdown, and we didn’t know what was going to happen with the state budget,” she said. “A lesser staff may have been anxious about the fact that we did a [compensation] freeze to keep the family whole. Our staff was completely supportive. ... I’m very pleased with the work [human resources] and finance have done to bring together this compensation improvement.”
