Education
BY THOMAS LEFFLER
SCUCISD passes over $6 million in raises, including HB 2 mandates
The backstory
The district’s 2025-26 compensation plan matches the HB 2-mandated raise, either $2,500 or $5,000, for teacher-scale employees with at least three years of experience, at a $430,000 cost to the district. On June 10, Moy presented two options: the one chosen by the board to match HB 2 raises and an option to give a 2% raise to those not covered by HB 2. The second option would have cost the district $338,000, according to the presentation. Trustee Dan Swart said that if the 2% option was what the district could afford, the district could then commit to another future raise on top of the 2% if a voter-approved tax rate election, or VATRE, were to pass in the fall. “The people who are only getting 2% have a commitment from us that when the money is available, a chunk of it will be earmarked for them. I think that would address the issue of us not making promises we can’t keep, but still being able to make a contingent promise assuming certain monies come our way,” he said during a June 10 meeting.
Statewide HB 2 investments $4B for teacher and staff pay
Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD incorporated the signing of House Bill 2 in its annual compensation plan for employees, giving raises across the board. At its June 24 meeting, the SCUCISD board of trustees passed the 2025-26 district compensation plan, increasing the pay of all district employees with total expenditures of $6.32 million by the district. The plan included raises for roughly 80 employees on the SCUCISD teacher pay scale, not included in mandated HB 2 raises. Teachers with two or fewer years of experience gained a 3% raise in the compensation plan, while all other employees also had a 3% pay increase. HB 2 was signed in both the Texas Senate and House of Representatives on June 1 and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 4. The $8.5 billion investment in public education will provide SCUCISD with $4.49 million in funding for classroom teacher raises, according to agenda documents. The bill mandates a $2,500 raise for classroom teachers in SCUCISD with three to four years of experience, as well as a $5,000 raise for classroom teachers with five or more years of experience. However, HB 2 uses the Texas Education Code definition of the term “classroom teacher,” defined as an educator who “teaches in an academic instructional setting or a career and technology instructional setting” for at least four hours each day on average. This leaves out positions like librarians, nurses and instructional coaches who are on the teacher pay scale.
raises and expansion of the Teacher Incentive Allotment $1.3B for school operational costs $834M for special education reforms $648M for improving early literacy and numeracy $430M to increase school safety allotment $318M additional funding for small and rural schools $153M to expand career and technical education
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE TEXAS GOVERNOR/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SCUCISD compensation plan options Position Option 1 Option 2
At a May 22 budget workshop, Chief Financial Officer Brian Moy said teachers who’ve asked to be instructional coaches “should probably get a raise.” He also said at a June 10 meeting that the specific education code definition is a consistent philosophy among state legislators. “Every time there’s a bill, even if they won’t admit it, in the backroom, there’s always someone to say, ‘How can we write the bill to fit the dollar amount we can afford?’” Moy said.
Teacher and teacher scale employee raises Instruction aides and campus paraprofessionals Other campus professionals and administration
$430,000 $338,000
$193,000 $193,000
$112,000 $112,000
Non-campus admin and paraprofessionals
$292,000 $292,000
Custodians and auxiliary
$123,000 $123,000
SOURCE: SCUCISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
What they’re saying
SCUCISD 2025-26 employee pay raises
continue workshopping the 2025-26 fiscal year budget, according to a presentation by Superintendent Paige Meloni. The board will approve a budget and tax rate on August 18. As of June 10, the projected 2025-26 general fund has $161.27 million in revenues and $171.99 million in expenditures, a shortfall of $10.72 million. This budget does not account for a potential VATRE.
Board President Edward Finley said figuring out where the legislature was heading had been a challenge for the district. “I know it’s been a hard thing to go through this year with all the changes, waiting on the legislature to make their final determination and then all of a sudden having to step up and make all those calculations,” Finley said. With compensation taken care of, the SCUCISD board’s next order of business is to
Matching other teacher scale employees with 3+ years experience: $430K
HB 2 mandate: $4.47M
3% raise for teachers with up to 2 years of experience: $340K
3% raise for all other employees: $1.08M
SOURCE: SCUCISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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