The Austin Independent School District (AISD) and labor union Education Austin reached a possible agreement on April 27, according to a report from Austin CBS affiliate KEYE.
Pending final AISD Board of Trustees approval at a meeting slated for this month, staff districtwide could receive a four-dollar pay raise.
KEYE reported that Education Austin and proponents for the salary increase held a rally prior to the meeting.
At least one educator said previous pay raises aren’t enough to keep up with rising costs of living.
“The cost of gas utilities, healthcare and just about everything else has skyrocketed,” elementary school teacher Traci Dunlap said at the rally, KEYE reported. “I can just barely afford to stay in my home. I don’t want to leave Austin, but what choice do I have?”
The station reported that the trustees have three options to consider when it comes to the pay raise.
According to the report, the first option called for a $1 working compression increase, the second a $2 wage raise for all staff and the third a $4 hike that bumps the district’s minimum wage to $20 an hour, the proposal deemed as the most preferred.
Education Austin leader Ken Zarifis told KEYE that the “monumental” pay raise consideration could likely “change people’s lives.”
“And with teachers, librarians, counselors, curriculum coaches, instructional coaches, a 7% raise,” Zarifis said in the report. “This is historic; we’ve never had a pay raise of this significance ever.”
Austin NPR affiliate KUT reported that the proposed bump is higher than the figure offered by AISD for the current academic year.
“We wanted to acknowledge that it is incredibly difficult for those serving our community to actually live in the community they serve,” interim superintendent Matias Segura said, per KUT. “So, we asked the team to be creative. We asked them to be aggressive.”
