The Denton ISD school board voted to give a one-time $750 payment to every teacher in the district in their March paychecks. Nonteaching staff will get a one-time payment that equals a 1% increase of their role鈥檚 midpoint salary range.
The vote applies funds from the voter-approved tax ratification election last year, which voters passed as Proposition A. The vote doesn鈥檛 negate a pay raise in the 2026-27 school year, when administrators plan to recommend a compensation increase.
The payments seem small when weighed against the tax ratification鈥檚 bounty: an added $26 million.
But district leaders said Denton ISD鈥檚 deficit would eat a large portion of the funding.
鈥淲e had about a $16 million deficit, so we knew coming out of the VATRE we would have about $10 million,鈥� Superintendent Susannah O鈥橞ara said. 鈥淏ut ... a 3% pay increase for staff will consume it.鈥�
Denton ISD has operated on a deficit budget for several years, paring expenses and eventually choosing to leave more than 100 full-time positions unfilled. As state public education funding has slowed, Texas public schools have struggled to cover costs. The district also increased class sizes, increased administrative workloads, and tapped fewer specialists to serve students who need intervention in math and reading.
The district鈥檚 decisions were labored, and O鈥橞ara said more than once: You can increase efficiency only so far until you start to see effectiveness decline.
O鈥橞ara said administrators sought feedback from teachers and staff to include them in prioritizing funds from the voter-approved tax ratification election, with 2,752 of about 4,500 employees completing a survey. Teachers were the largest employee group to participate, which reflects their status as the largest employee demographic in the district. O鈥橞ara said almost an even number of elementary and secondary school teachers took the survey.
鈥淚 kept saying this: If I had a crystal ball, I think people are going to say what matters most is increasing staff and teacher compensation,鈥� O鈥橞ara said. 鈥淪o, of the 2,700 survey participants, you can see the highest-ranking answer was increase staff and teacher pay. That鈥檚 what mattered most to them. The second-highest was reducing class sizes, and the third was restoring those out-of-classroom support positions.鈥�
Survey data also showed that, for 71% of those surveyed, increased staff and teacher pay was 鈥渢he single most important thing to them,鈥� O鈥橞ara said.
Employees answered questions about class size, and ranked reducing class sizes lower than pay raises. When polled about out-of-classroom support, survey-takers ranked lower in importance.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 mean they don鈥檛 want it, but if we have to rank between them, if you choose what鈥檚 most important of three really important things, this is how they ranked it,鈥� O鈥橞ara said.
Belt-tightening has become a recruitment and retention challenge for the district. In its preparation to put Proposition A on the ballot last year, Denton ISD looked at compensation for starting teachers at 14 North Texas districts comparable to Denton. Teachers in Denton ISD are among the lowest-paid.
鈥淓very time I put that slide up in the Prop A presentations, it was just a gut punch, right? It鈥檚 devastating, because those are the teachers influencing what鈥檚 happening with our students and their outcomes every single day,鈥� O鈥橞ara said.
The board unanimously approved the measure. School board member Sheryl English put it bluntly:
鈥淚 have one comment. Pay the people,鈥� she said.
Board member Charles Stafford said the recommendation was a difficult decision, but the right one.
鈥淚t鈥檚 people first,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd appreciating them had to be part of it.鈥�
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
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