Katy ISD is exploring new ways to assist its lowest-rated schools and most economically disadvantaged students.
The big picture
At an Oct. 26 meeting, the Katy ISD board of trustees approved staffing, stipends and incentives for its strategic school improvement framework designed to assist needs at select high-need campuses.
“This is a leadership framework that’s designed to accelerate student achievement at our highest need campuses,” Chief Academic Officer Christine Caskey said at an Oct. 19 work study meeting.
By the numbers
There are 26 eligible elementary schools in the district that can receive Title I funding due to 40% of their students being economically disadvantaged, but only 20 will.
The percentage of economically disadvantaged students has increased 33.4% since 2002 and six schools are going unfunded in the 2026-27 school year compared to one in 2017-18.
Caskey said the main concern is how D-rated schools are not seeing continuous improvement and the district’s goal is to eliminate D-rated schools and make sure the campuses do not revert after obtaining a higher rating.
The district already began phasing in priority staffing two years ago at select campuses related to the framework.
The framework
Caskey said the new components to the framework are related to hiring a director of strategic support who would work with the assistant superintendent of leadership in overseeing the highest-need campuses, a master (lead) teacher stipend and a principal incentive allotment.
The master (lead) teacher stipend includes an $8,000 bonus for teachers in third through fifth grade math and reading at the lowest-rated schools who help instruct their peers, in addition to their regular classroom duties.
Deputy Superintendent Leslie Haack said the principal incentive allotment is a performance-based pay scale related to accountability ratings and improvement. Principals at all district campuses can make up to $10,000 per letter-grade improvement and if they improve a letter grade by five points or more they are rewarded with an additional $2,000 on top of other bonuses.
Caskey said another strategy being explored is the additional days school year where districts create up to 30 supplementary instructional days for extra funding, but ISDs must have a minimum of 175 instructional days and Katy ISD only has 172.
The cost
The director of strategic support’s salary would be $120,000 per year, the teacher stipend would be $240,000 per year and the principal allotment would cost $122,500 per year, Caskey said. The director's salary and the teacher stipends will be paid from the general operating fund, while the principal allotment will be funded through Title II funds.
What happens next?
Caskey said the district will be hiring for the director of strategic support position this school year, while the teacher stipend and the principal allotment will go into effect in the 2027-28 school year.
