Teachers and staff in Tomball ISD will see larger pay increases this year after the board of trustees gathered for a special meeting July 24 to review the district's salary schedule. The board approved pay raises of 3% to 3.5% for all staff—instead of the 2% approved June 12—as part of the fiscal year 2019-20 budget. During the July 24 meeting, TISD trustees amended the district's FY 2019-20 budget to include a 3% increase on the midpoint of the salary scales for all staff and a 3.5% increase for teachers, librarians and nurses with six or more years of experience, Chief Financial Officer Jim Ross said. "The additional salary increases recommended are due to ... a better understanding of the impact of House Bill 3," Ross said during the meeting. House Bill 3, which allots $11.6 billion to reform the state’s school finance system and changes the school finance formula for districts, was signed into law June 11—the day before TISD trustees approved the district's budget for its fiscal year, which began July 1. "Actually with the calculations with House Bill 3, the 2% was more than what we were required to give by law. We actually only saw a 3% increase total as far as in our future revenue [from HB 3]," Ross said. Ross said he estimates the total cost of changing the pay increase from 2% to 3% or 3.5% will cost the district $1.13 million in FY 2019-20. However, he said he estimates the district will see a $5 million surplus this year with its current approved budget, an increase from the approximately $2 million surplus Ross said in June he anticipated the district to see as a result of HB 3. "[Since the budget was adopted] I needed to model [HB 3 effects] out over the future years, because as you know, if you give a salary increase, it's perpetual. You're going to have it from then on, and before I could actually step forward and recommend that [3% increase] to the superintendent, I wanted to make certain there were no negative repercussions as far as in future years with the salary increase," Ross said. Ross said he believes the district can safely support the additional salary increases in upcoming years, regardless of any unforeseen cuts in state funding. "That's the thing I wanted to make certain is that what we give, we can continue to give without an impact in the future as far as reductions of any type and maintaining ... stable operations," he said. For new hires, the starting salary for teachers in FY 2019-20 is now $55,300, an increase from the previously approved $55,000 in June, trustee John McStravick said during the meeting. This is up from $54,000 for new hires in 2018-19, according to the district's hiring schedule for 2018-19. "When we voted on this [budget] in June, I believe the sentiment across the entire board was based on what happened with House Bill 3, this was as good as it could get based on our analysis at the time," McStravick said. "I think we all hoped that we were going to be able to do something a little bit better, and I'm glad that we are able to reassess that and come back and make some changes."