2023 EDUCATION EDITION
hour, up from $15 per hour last year. The new budget also includes about $63 million in performance-based retention incentives. Employees eval- uated with “exemplary” or “master” performance levels will receive a $4,000 bonus, according to the bud- get. Those with “unsatisfactory” per- formance levels will only get a $500 incentive. Employees with ve or more years of experience will get a $1,000 incentive. With the new budget, DISD allo- cated about $1.2 million for social work services and almost $34 million in security and monitoring services, about 3.7% and 4.2% less than the previous scal year, respectively. Planning ahead Because the district’s scal year began July 1, the district was legally required to set its budget during the ongoing special legislative sessions, which could lead to new laws that a ect school funding, Alford-Stephens said. When the Legislature goes into special session, as it has this year, the district must re-evaluate its budget later on for any changes.
One such law will require all public and open-enrollment charter schools to have at least one armed security o cer on campus during school hours. Each district will receive $15,000 per campus and $10 per stu- dent for school safety initiatives. Alford-Stephens said she isn’t sure yet how DISD will pay for the program or whether it will a ect teacher funding. “Any time you’re adding sta , that’s a cost,” Alford-Stephens said, noting DISD’s budget may have to increase. “When we’re talking about police ... there’s uniforms, supplies, materials and training [to fund].” Moving forward, DISD o cials plan to continue advocating for additional funding from the state. Leal said teachers should also plan to be active in the “ ght for public education.” “The future of public education is really going to depend on the leader- ship of the state,” he said. “Right now, teachers and students are being held hostage in this game.”
TEACHER EXPERIENCE In the 2023-24 scal year, Dallas ISD teachers will be paid a starting salary of $61,000, which increases based on experience. More than half the district’s nearly 9,875 teachers have six or more years of experience teaching.
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000 500 0
0
1-5
6-10 11-20 21-30 30+
Years of teaching experience
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
compensation” through systems such as TEI since 2014 in order to recruit and retain teachers, especially “at the campuses that need them the most.” He added that the initiative “ensures market-competitive base salaries” that will result in fewer teacher vacan- cies and higher quality educators. DISD has seen a record number of
teacher applicants for 2023-24, with nearly 8,500 applications submitted as of late July, Abel said. Other costs In addition to teacher pay raises, the budget includes additional com- pensation for nonteaching sta . Their minimum wage will increase to $16 per
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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LAKE HIGHLANDS LAKEWOOD EDITION • AUGUST 2023
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