LEANDER, Texas — Leander ISD's Board of Trustees has approved raises for the district's teachers.
At Thursday night's board meeting, trustees approved a 4% raise to help retain and recruit employees. The raise will go into effect for the 2023-24 school year.
During the meeting, Superintendent Bruce Gearing acknowledged that it's hard for teachers to live comfortably in Leander now due to affordability issues.
"It really came across hard that inflation is very difficult right now and it's hard to live. It's hard to afford to live in our community with our current wages," Gearing said.
This is the second year in a row that Leander ISD's board has voted to give staff a raise. Last May, the board approved a compensation plan for the 2022-23 school year that gave teachers a 5% raise and all other staff a 4% raise.
Leander ISD is the second Central Texas school district to agree to a raise for teachers in the past couple of weeks.
Austin ISD recently approved a compensation package that includes a 7% raise for all teachers, librarians, counselors, instructional coaches and special educators. All IT specialists, instructional and non-instructional support, auxiliary workers, bus drivers and school police will receive a $4 per hour pay increase.