As college districts throughout San Antonio draft up budgets for the subsequent college 12 months, Judson ISD is freezing worker pay.
On Monday, Judson’s board voted 5-1 to maintain worker wages the identical for the 2026-27 college 12 months. Trustee Lesley Lee was the lone “no” vote and Trustee Jose Macias Jr. was absent.
Holding pay stagnant is simply one of many newest strikes by Judson’s management to repair the district’t $35 million funds deficit. In February, the board authorized closing 4 colleges on the finish of the 2025-26 cycle, saving the district about $7 million.
Larger cuts got here in April, when the board authorized eliminating 500 positions, which district officers say ought to deal with the remainder of the deficit.
Interim Superintendent Robert Jaklich, who joined Judson in February, stated chopping positions is the one means Judson might see a balanced funds for the subsequent college 12 months. Holding pay the identical throughout Judson might give the district extra respiration room.
Jaklich desires Judson to exit for one more voter-approved tax fee election (VATRE) this 12 months, which might generate hundreds of thousands of further {dollars} for Judson to make use of on its operations, together with wages and salaries.
Judson voters rejected an analogous effort final November, however Jaklich is optimistic they’ll change their minds this time round, given the district’s drastic steps to stability the funds.
“We will simply maintain with all the things we’ve got after which wait one 12 months and let’s see how the VATRE comes out,” Jaklich stated.
It’s commonplace follow for trainer base pay to extend for yearly of expertise — that may keep in place at Judson — however most college districts normally present supplemental cost-of-living raises, stipends and retention bonuses to remain aggressive within the hiring market.
And academics throughout Texas acquired huge pay bumps final 12 months with the passage of Home Invoice 2, an $8.5 billion public college funding invoice that mandates trainer raises based mostly on years of expertise and pupil enrollment.
Whereas HB 2 was hailed as one of many largest investments in public colleges by its authors, offering eligible academics with annual raises between $2,500 and $8,000, the invoice’s definition of “trainer” excluded different staff who additionally work with college students, like nurses, librarians and counselors.
Traditionally, state lawmakers have included these positions when mandating pay raises. HB 2 raises can even carry over perpetually for eligible academics.
To make up the distinction, most college districts authorized smaller raises for different staff, together with campus-based workers, auxiliary staff and directors. Whereas HB 2 did have funding buckets for these areas, they had been smaller and college districts weren’t required to make use of them for pay will increase.
And at Judson, HB 2 excluded a novel group of staff: educational trainers.
Not like educational coaches, who normally work with college students who want additional assist, trainers work with academics, guiding them to be simpler. Judson has round 30 of them, and whereas the district isn’t actively chopping educational trainers, it isn’t hiring new ones as a cost-saving measure, eliminating posts as staff resign or transfer to different positions.
Like all different staff, educational trainers gained’t get pay will increase subsequent 12 months.
Not like most campus-based workers, trainers aren’t provided any stipends, retention bonuses or incentives to remain on with the district or continued training. This pay construction grew to become some extent of rivalry amongst board members when deciding on a compensation plan for the upcoming college 12 months.
Like most districts, Judson presents staff totally different stipends for holding particular certifications and graduate levels. There’s additionally totally different incentive bonuses for issues like sponsoring golf equipment or after-school occasions.
Judson officers stated already present stipends would largely keep in place, aside from a few one-time incentives used in the course of the 2025-26 college 12 months.
Trustees Lee, Suzanne Kenoyer and Laura Stanford pushed so as to add a $1,500 stipend for tutorial trainers, who’re required to have instructing certifications.
Lee, the one vote in opposition to Judson’s compensation plan because it didn’t embody any will increase for tutorial trainers, argued most employers pay trainers additional as a result of they assist different staff.
Board President Monica Ryan pushed again, saying the district doesn’t have a scarcity of trainers necessitating a stipend. She additionally questioned how efficient educational trainers had been in enhancing pupil outcomes general.
Judson has a number of academically-failing colleges, and preliminary STAAR scores for 2026 present the district backsliding in some topics and grade ranges.
Providing educational coaching stipends would price Judson round $50,000, however Greg Gibson, the district’s monetary advisor, stated board members ought to decide to a compensation construction with out making any modifications for at the very least a 12 months.
Gibson works with exterior college finance group Moak Casey, and was introduced on a number of months in the past. Judson has gone with out a full-time chief monetary officer of its personal since October of final 12 months.
He says a part of Judson’s monetary issues stemmed from overstaffing and giving staff too many stipends, incentives and will increase, even after budgets had been adopted for the varsity 12 months.
“Y’all simply make funds modification, funds modification, funds modification after which similar to throw the [original] funds up within the air… nobody can sustain,” Gibson instructed the board.
Board Vice President Amanda Poteet, who joined the board final Might, agreed.
“I believe that was an enormous drawback that we had final 12 months as properly, we’ll simply maintain including or we gained’t reduce something as a result of the VATRE goes to ‘clear up’ it,” she stated. “I don’t assume it’s smart to begin nickel and dime-ing and including more cash into the funds after we simply bought it balanced. It’s too new, it’s too recent, it’s too fragile.”
Gibson agrees with Jaklich that the board ought to revisit compensation solely after going out for a VATRE, banking on voter help to unlock hundreds of thousands in additional income for Judson.
Finally, the board voted 3-3 on the stipend challenge, blocking further pay for tutorial trainers and passing the identical compensation plan as final 12 months.
