May 23, 2022

On Monday, May 23, the Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees approved pay increases and one-time incentive payments for all district employees during its regular board meeting. The board also approved the district’s compensation plan for the upcoming year.

The approved increases and incentive payments apply to returning permanent staff members (full or part-time) who served at least 90 days with the district this year. The increases and incentives include:

• General Pay Increase
• 7% for Teaching staff (based on median teacher salary), 
• 7% for Auxiliary/Clerical hourly staff  (based on pay grade midpoint)
• 4% for Administrative/Professional staff (based on pay grade midpoint)
• The adoption of a minimum $15 per hour wage for all hourly staff
  
• $1,000 Retention Incentive Payment in September
  Returning permanent full- and part-time employees (as well as long-term substitutes) who commit to return to work with DSISD for the 2022-2023 school year and who are actively working for the district in September when the incentive is paid, will receive a $1,000 lump-sum retention incentive payment. 

The plan also includes the recommendation to increase the minimum hourly wage from $12 to $15 per hour. That increase will raise the pay of all hourly-wage workers in the district. 

The approved raise will equate to $3,950 per teacher, plus $1,000 in the incentive payment, for a total of $4,950 per teacher. Other employee raises vary by individual pay grade midpoints. The raises will go into effect in employees’ first 2022-2023 paycheck.  

“The Board of Trustees is committed to recognizing the exceptional work that our educators and district employees do every day to serve the students and families of DSISD. We appreciate the administration’s work to come up with a compensation plan that they believe will help attract and retain talent while being judicious with taxpayer dollars. We were pleased to unanimously support the pay increases and incentive payments recommendations,” commented Board of Trustees President Dr. Mary Jane Hetrick. 

“Dripping Springs ISD is a destination district for families and we want to work to ensure that it is a destination district as an employer, too. We want talented and innovative life-changers to come and work here and build their careers with us,” said DSISD Superintendent Dr. Holly Morris-Kuentz. “I appreciate the Board’s full support of this pay increase and incentives for our valued employees,” she continued. 

Similar to the Austin area, the cost of living in Dripping Springs has increased at a rapid rate and the district believes these increases and incentives will relieve some of the hardship that our employees face while living and working in Dripping Springs ISD.