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LOSING STAFF Area school districts have experienced a rise in the number of teachers leaving the district over the past few years. 2022-23 data will be released in January.
Cost of living Spanish teacher Ashley Eberhart, who has taught in RRISD for 12 years, said she has seen co-work- ers leave the district for a variety of reasons, such as a ordability, long commutes and divisiveness among community members. She said cost-of-living pressures are compounded by inaction at the Texas Legislature, which has yet to enact meaningful increases to public school funding. In the last few years, the cost of living in Central Texas has increased signi cantly. Home prices have risen around 30% since December 2020, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors. Additionally, the consumer price index, a measure of how the cost of goods has changed, has increased by roughly 6% annually from 2020 to 2023. By comparison, data from HISD, PfISD and RRISD shows base pay rates have only increased between 1% and just over 4% on an annual basis since 2020. Eberhart said it is di cult to keep up if wages do not. “If you’re in a double-income family, being a teacher is not quite as rough nancially as being a single person,” she said. “Living on your own and trying to teach is not sustainable.” To address the issue, some school districts are exploring ways to provide a ordable housing, or workforce housing, within their communities. In June, RRISD entered into an agreement with the Texas Workforce Housing Foundation to explore discounted rental rates at apartment com- plexes owned by the foundation. Eddie Curran, RRISD’s chief of human resources, said keeping teachers living in or near the district would go a long way to retain them. “I really feel for employees,” Curran said. “We hear a lot of reasons why they leave the district, and one of them is that they can no longer a ord to live here. I don’t think that was a situation that we had 15 years ago. We have to gure out some di erent ways to keep them here.” Similarly, voters approved a $43.92 million ini- tiative in November to bring workforce housing to P ugerville ISD. Additionally, PfISD entered into an agreement with the TWHF to establish a ordable housing options for employees June 29. PfISD and RRISD agreed to allow the TWHF to
Round Rock ISD P ugerville ISD Hutto ISD State
25%
20%
15%
10%
0%
2017-18
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
the district, especially during these times, that anyone can just abandon their job without follow- ing proper lines of protocols and policies,” PfISD Place 6 Trustee Jean Mayer said. The noti cation was intended to curb a rash of teachers departing the district, retaining them through their contract period. As districts explore ways to keep the sta they have, they’re also working to grow future sta members right from the classroom. In June, RRISD announced a partnership with Texas State University and Austin Community Col- lege to create a pipeline of future teachers. Under the Grow Your Own program, RRISD students enrolled in career and technical education classes will receive college credit from ACC that can be transferred to Texas State. A long-term goal is to have students in high school take courses at the Round Rock Texas State campus. As these students move through the ACC-to- Texas State pipeline, RRISD will develop a teacher residency program wherein Texas State under- graduate students will do their paid, yearlong teacher residency in the district. Curran said this program is under development and is likely to launch during the 2024-25 school year. HISD is also building partnerships with higher
establish a ordability funds for $1 million and $2 million, respectively. The funds will be used to provide apartments at a discounted rate for district employees at designated apartment complexes. The TWHF will nd complexes where hous- ing units can be reserved for employees based on household income. The agreement with the TWHF is not tied to the district’s voter-approved workforce housing project, PfISD Superintendent Douglas Killian said in June. “This is a step to provide that kind of service before we even get to that project,” Killian said. Ramped-up recruitment While school districts are working to retain the sta they have, they are also identifying new ways to bring more talent to the district from working with local higher education partners to providing alternative inroads to the classroom. In January 2022, PfISD noti ed the State Board of Educator Certi cation and the Texas Education Agency that several teachers had abandoned their contracts mid-year. Consequences of contract abandonment range from a formal reprimand to suspension of certi cation, according to the board. “We nd that it is not in our best interests of our students and our sta and our leadership here in
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