Education
Judson ISD has amended its 2025-26 fiscal year employee compensation plan, providing teacher raises to align with mandates from the Texas Legislature and to take care of employees not impacted by the bill. In a 4-2 vote on July 31, the Judson ISD board of trustees approved $8.25 million in employee raises, complying with the passage of House Bill 2, along with giving all district employees—with the exceptions of administrators and District of Innovation teachers—not under HB 2 mandates a 1.5% midpoint salary raise. A midpoint raise is one to increase compensa- tion based on market value, assuring equity of Judson ISD approves $8.25M in teacher raises
with 0-2 years of experience. However, under HB 2, the state also provided the district $829,506 from a support staff retention allotment, which was designed to provide pay raises for staff who work outside of the classroom. According to a presentation by district staff, 1,370 district classroom teachers are covered under HB 2 mandates, while over 1,600 district employees fall outside the legislation. The state’s teacher retention allotment for the 1,370 teachers receiving the $2,500 or $5,000 raise amounts to $6.38 million . The action will cost a total of $1.02 million out of the district’s local fund balance, which is the difference between assets and liabilities in a district fund according to the Texas Association of School Administrators. The local fund balance costs are derived from providing additional benefits, such as retirement, rather than the salary itself. The $829,506 is from a support staff retention allotment that is for salaries only. The board chose to give employees not impacted by HB 2 a 1.5% salary raise at mid- point, a slight increase from the district staff’s
employee pay, according to the Texas Associa- tion of School Boards. Digging deeper HB 2, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 4, provides an allotment for pay raises to classroom teachers with at least three years of experience in districts with over 5,000 stu- dents, such as Judson ISD. Under the mandate, classroom teachers with three to four years of experience receive a raise of $2,500, while those with five or more years of experience receive a $5,000 raise. However, the bill uses the Texas Education Code definition of “classroom teacher” to determine which employees receive raises. The education code defines a classroom teacher as an educator who “teaches in an academic instructional setting or a career and technology instructional setting” for at least four hours a day on average. This language leaves out employees like nurses, librarians, counselors and other non-ad- ministrative staff, as well as classroom teachers
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