Conroe ISD will give teachers a stipend but no raises

Full-time teachers in Conroe ISD will see $1,200 in stipends but no raises under a $672 million budget approved by trustees.

The CISD board approved its 2024 budget earlier this month, which will include $11 million in retention stipends for teachers.

While the budget will increase $53 million over 2023’s $619 million, CISD Chief Financial Officer Darrin Rice said the proposed tax rate will drop 15.2 cents from $1.11 per $100 property valuation to 96.21 cents.

The budget includes $35.7 million to fund 555 new full-time positions, including 303 new teachers. The increase in staff, Rice said, is largely due to the district opening three new schools for the 2024 school year.

The budget also includes the district moving 225 positions to its general fund, totaling about $16 million in its 2023-24 budget as the federal grant funding ends.

Trustee Stacy Chase addressed employees and teachers and said the lack of raises “is not fair.”

“To pass a budget that doesn’t include pay raises for the incredibly hard-working and dedicated professionals of Conroe ISD breaks my heart,” Chase said during the district’s budget discussion meeting Aug. 15.

The district is still waiting on pending state legislation that would fund raises for teachers.

Rice said if the district were to give employees a 3 percent raise, the cost would be about $17.5 million and a 5 percent would be about $26 million.

“Hopefully this fall the Legislature will act and (raises) will be retroactive to their contract start date,” Rice said.

Superintendent Curtis Null said he was hopeful state legislators would address funding for raises.

“I think we will be talking in November, December about a raise based on the new money,” Null said.

Despite no raises, the district will use remaining grant funds from the elementary and secondary school emergency relief grant program signed into law in March 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to cover $1,200 retention stipends for teachers, Rice said.