LISD Board passes historic compensation and staffing plans

Lockhart ISD

The Lockhart Independent School District Board of Trustees passed the 2022-2023 employee compensation and staffing plans at the Board meeting Monday evening. The historic compensation plan responds to the district staff’s urgent needs for higher pay and increased monthly savings in health insurance. 

Teachers will receive up to 8 percent in pay raises with an emphasis on rewarding veteran teachers for their valuable experience and years of service. With the significant shift, Lockhart ISD becomes one of the highest-paying districts in Central Texas for veteran teachers with years of service from any school district. 

Clerical paraprofessional staff will receive up to a 37 percent increase. Auxiliary staff will receive up to a 28 percent increase in pay. 

Administrative professional staff will receive an increase of 3 percent of the midpoint of the new pay scale recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB). 

In addition to increased pay, Lockhart ISD will provide a compensation package that includes self-funded health insurance, moving away from the Texas Retirement System’s health insurance plans to its own service called Lion Care. The movement to this model results in savings of $21-$1,559 per month, depending on an employee’s current TRS Active Care health insurance plan. Those employees who already moved away from the TRS Active Care plan to the Texas School Health Benefits Program will save between $24-$213 per month. The employee-only plan remains free. The district anticipates additional savings with lower deductibles, prescription costs, and other out-of-pocket costs for its staff. 

Staffing for the next school year provides intentional support to students and staff to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and boost student success. The district added positions to provide special education, behavior, gifted and talented, and counseling support for students. Also, the district is providing a mental health counselor for staff in response to feedback at a recent staff forum. 

To continue to protect the continuity of learning and services for students, and to provide support to teachers, Lockhart ISD is creating greater substitute capacity with designated daily substitutes assigned to campuses regardless of pre-planned staff absences.

“The goal of the school district in this budget was to focus on having a LockHeart for People in caring for its staff,” said Chief Financial Officer Nicole Dean. “We are very proud to offer a plan that increases pay at historic levels while also saving our staff money with reduced monthly costs on health insurance.” 

“At a critical crossroads for public education, and with many staff experiencing hardship and no shortage of choices for employment, it was important to the Board and our leadership team to make sure we took care of our people so they didn’t have to make difficult choices, and we could keep talent in this district to benefit our students,” added Superintendent Mark Estrada. “While this is a great first step, we commit to continuing the hard work to ensure our compensation package leverages every ability to utilize the funding provided by the state.”