PISD board OK’s teacher salary hikes

By Manuel Azocar III - Sports Writer/Managing Editor | July 7, 2026

“We are doing anything and everything to keep our teachers”

Pearsall ISD board members have unanimously approved a teacher and staff compensation plan, increasing starting teacher pay to $65,000 and adding a $400 increment for additional years of experience.

The decision to approve the so-called Compensation Plan 1 came in a vote at a recent board meeting.

The move was made in large part to improve teacher retention at the district, according to the administration.

The $65,000 starting pay is an increase from the previous $55,280 for first-year instructors.

“Pearsall ISD is deeply grateful to our board of trustees for their support and commitment to investing in our staff,” district officials noted on the school website. “Their dedication to the employees who serve our students and community every day makes a lasting difference. We look forward to another outstanding year ahead.”

Along with the increase and the incremental supplement, the compensation plan includes a five-percent salary increase at the mid-point for all administrative, clerical and auxiliary staff.

Pearsall ISD will also increase its monthly contribution to the employee health insurance plan from $375 to $499, according to the board decision. As a result, the employee-only option for the primary care plan will now be provided at no cost to district employees.

An incentive pay of $750 will be issued in December for full-time employees and $375 for part-time employees.

Additionally, employees on the 226-day or longer pay calendars will receive three additional days on the local leave policy.

“We’ve always talked about being financial stewards, but at the same token our responsibility is taking care of our staff as well, you know, being responsible for them,” PISD School Board President Lionel Gandara said at the meeting. “I mean, I wholeheartedly agree with compensating and trying to get ahead of the game for at least three years.

“I pride myself in our district that we’ve done well financially,” Gandara said. “We’ve had great balance and I think, well, I know, it’s time for us to start shining.”

Prior to the vote, trustee Marco Reyes issued a reminder to his fellow board members and those in attendance of what he described as the financial fine line school districts face when relying on tax revenue and state funding, citing massive budget deficits at Northeast ISD in San Antonio and at Ft. Worth ISD.

“I will agree with whatever the majority of the board wants to do, but I just want to remind everybody that we live off the revenue of taxes and whatever the state provides,” Reyes said. “So if that changes over the next two or three years… the district is not a publicly funded organization… You only have one revenue and that’s off taxes and state. If anything is squeezed on that it’s going to have a direct impact on your financials.

“So, yes, you can say, I want to approve Compensation Plan 1 at $1.2 million plus another half a million dollars, now, you’re looking at $2 million,” Reyes said. “That is a ten-percent increase on our budget, folks.

Where are you going to come up with that? That means you’re going to cut two million dollars off of somewhere else. So two million dollars is twenty teachers. We can’t afford to cut 20 teachers, can we?

“Come next year or two years or three years from now that we start eating the fund balance, somebody’s going to have to ask ‘What happened?’” Reyes added.

Other trustees indicated they believe incentivizing teachers and staff through the compensation plan would do much to reversing an apparent and ongoing teacher retention issue at the district.

“Well, I do want to say that number one, being an educator myself, any penny is appreciated,” Trustee Dora Mata-Rodriguez said. “I’m pretty sure our teachers feel the same way. Our teachers really are the ones that have to put the action in place. I do want to commend our teachers for that.

“I want teachers to always consider that not only are we considering a compensation plan, we’ve also considered the academic calendar where they have a week off in the fall,” Mata-Rodriguez added. “We are doing everything and anything to keep our teachers.”

The trustee also said she hopes teachers will take note of the support from the district.

“We’ve done a lot of things to support our teachers, yet we still have teacher turnover; we still have teachers uncertified,” Mata-Rodriguez said. “So somewhere in all of this, we’re still missing some major points. We are doing this to definitely compensate you, but we also need you to meet us halfway.”

“I’m going to suggest compensation number one so that way we set the bar high,” Trustee Adriann Ramirez said. “And I expect that in return and I appreciate our teachers and everybody who runs our school.”

The approved compensation plan also included a freeze on District of Innovation and pay scales for uncertified teachers.