Friendswood ISD’s board of trustees considered potential stipend allotments for district staff, including special education and athletics, for fiscal year 2026-27 at its April 27 workshop session.
Zooming in
The board reviewed the current 2025-26 salary schedule, along with data on staff stipends from neighboring districts, to help guide upcoming budget discussions and set priorities ahead of the May 11 board meeting.
Special education stipends are considered an immediate priority in the overall budget review, Lindsey Foley, FISD’s executive director of human resources, said at the workshop.
“We're the only district in our surrounding area that doesn't already offer a special education stipend,” Foley said. “If we're able to do that, it would allow us to retain and improve positions that are hard to fill.”
Special education teachers are currently paid on the same salary schedule as general education teachers, district officials said.
“They're delivering amazing instruction and meeting the physical needs of our students. I think that's a really high priority,” Foley said.
Additional recommendations included increasing bus driver pay by $0.75 per hour, custodian pay by $1 per hour, and raising stipend allotments for athletics and instructional staff for FY 2026-27.
Why now?
District officials said the stipends are meant for recruitment and retention, particularly in areas such as athletics, University Interscholastic League, or UIL, special education and instructional coaches, as previously reported by Community Impact.
At its April 13 board meeting, the board approved a one-time retention stipend totaling $156,000 for nonteaching professional staff, including instructional coaches, nurses and special education program specialists.
Also of note
The board approved 16 additional personnel units for the 2026-27 school year, including behavior support paraprofessionals, behavior analysts, special education teachers and core curriculum teachers, totaling nearly $180,000, according to district documents.
The board also approved 10 contracts for teaching and nonteaching professional staff for the upcoming school year, with an average experience level of nearly 12 years, according to district documents.
What’s next
District officials said they will compare peer district data and return with recommendations aimed at bringing stipend amounts closer to the regional median.
“The sooner that we have this information, the better, because it's all about recruitment and retention,” Foley said.
The board of trustees are scheduled to review an updated budget report for FY 2026-27 and further discuss stipend allotments at 5:45 p.m. May 11 in the FISD boardroom, located at 302 Laurel Drive, Friendswood.
