From employee compensation to school calendars, read about three education stories coming out of Hays, San Marcos CISDs.
1. Unofficial voting results show Zavala, Armstrong secure Hays CISD trustee seats
With all precincts in Hays, Caldwell and Travis counties reporting in the May 2 uniform election, unofficial results show Alex Zavala and Katy Armstrong have secured seats on the Hays CISD board of trustees.
In the race for the at-large position, Zavala secured 706, or 54.48% of ballots, against opponent Ashlee Thurston, who had 590, or 45.52% ballots cast in their favor.
Armstrong secured 189, or 63.64% of votes in the race for the Single-Member District 2 seat, with candidate Jose Luis Perez securing the remaining 36.36% ballots, according to a report from HCISD.
Also of note
Incumbent Raul Vela Jr. ran unopposed for the Single-Member District 1 seat. He was first elected to the board in 2020 and will retain his seat for another three-year term.
Looking ahead
All results are unofficial until canvassed on May 11.
2. Hays CISD approves librarian pay for 2026-27
Hays CISD library media specialists may see stipends on their paychecks next year, among other changes.
The overview
The HCISD board of trustees approved the employee compensation plan for the 2026-27 academic year at an April 27 meeting. Many of the changes reflect the budget cuts announced in March.
Librarians will also be moved to a different pay scale to receive “proper” compensation and to maintain their current salaries, according to HCISD Chief Human Resources Officer Christina Courson.
“Librarians are the only group that are required to have a master’s degree from the group impacted," Christina Courson, HCISD Chief Human Resources Officer, said. "We are working to create a change in which librarians would lose no money and [be] placed on the academic professionals scale from this point forward.”
3. San Marcos CISD adopts new 2026-27 calendar with 6 additional days
San Marcos CISD staff and students will see a slight change in their upcoming academic calendar. The board of trustees adopted an Additional Days School Year calendar, or ADSY, which will add six instructional days to garner more state funding for SMCISD's summer learning program.
The board voted 6-1 at its April 20 meeting to rescind the 2026-27 academic calendar approved in January, and 4-2 to adopt a new calendar in line with ADSY.
Remember this?
The board first considered the ADSY calendar at its March 23 board meeting. According to Chief of Communications Andrew Fernandez, the calendar would add between one and 30 additional half-days, which would generate half-day formula funding through the Texas Education Agency.
Funding through ADSY is available for districts that add up to 30 additional instructional days beyond a minimum of 175 days to campuses serving prekindergarten through eighth-grade students, Fernandez said.
