Round Rock ISD to take up pay raises for teachers

ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) -- Round Rock Independent School District Trustees may boost pay for teachers and other staff at their Thursday meeting.

Trustees are discussing raising the starting salary for teachers and librarians to $52,650. Teachers and librarians at years 1-7 and 21-23 would get raises of $2,250, or 4%.

Austin ISD pays teachers a starting salary of $51,150 a year.

RRISD could raise administrative and operations salaries by 3% and instructional support, technology, police and others by 2%.

Texas created the Teacher Vacancy Task Force in March to address a teacher shortage problem. It will explore certification, placement, and hiring flexibilities. In a poll from the Texas American Federation of Teachers, 66% of Texas educators surveyed said they’ve recently considered leaving their profession due to low pay and increasing workload.

Ben Sterling, president of the Round Rock teacher's union Education Round Rock, said in March he was concerned the state could accelerate certification processes or waive some requirements to help bring more teachers in quickly.

"The answer to the problem of teachers leaving this industry is not going to be to rush to bring in more unskilled labor," Sterling said. "The answer to this question is to retain those skilled teachers."

On March 31, RRISD trustees increased pay for educational assistants to $2 more an hour for the 2022-23 school year. Starting pay for an educational assistant II will go up from $13.15 to $15.50. Those who work at Title I schools will get starting pay increases from $15.92 per hour to $17.94 per hour. The top-end for the job at Title I schools goes up to $25.30.

The increase will cost the district under $500,000 for the 2021-22 school year. It will use the money saved from unfilled positions.