The Austin Independent School District (AISD) Board of Trustees approved proposed pay increases for teachers and classified staff on Thursday, Austin-based media outlets reported.
The move occurred nearly a month after the public school district and labor union Education Austin reached a possible agreement for the raises.
“It was just an amazing night, when you see that people getting a $4-an-hour increase in their pay, change in their lives, that's powerful,” Education Austin leader Ken Zarifis, who attended the meeting, said, per a report from Austin CBS affiliate KEYE.
Citing Austin NPR affiliate KUT, Austin Journal reported last month that the proposed bump previously agreed upon by both parties is higher than the figure offered by AISD for the current academic year.
With Thursday’s vote, KEYE reported, the district gives teachers, librarians and counselors a 7% raise, a 5% raise for administration and a $4 per hour raise for hourly employees, as well as other pay boosts for employees in other departments.
AISD, which now has a minimum wage of $20 per hour, hopes the pay raises address its staff shortage and the city’s rising costs of living.
“If you look at last year, 22 people left this school district," Zarifis said in the report. "Twenty-two hundred. I mean that's a huge amount.”
Austin ABC affiliate KVUE reported that district leaders said employees would receive "the better of the percentage increase” or a leg up on “the career ladder.”
Per KVUE, the current median starting pay for an AISD teacher of approximately $55,000 will jump $4,000 as of the next academic year.
For educators, the pay hike is very much-needed.
Austin Journal reported that a rally was held before the initial agreement, in which fifth grade teacher Traci Dunlap attended.
“I can just barely afford to stay in my home,” Dunlap told KEYE, according to the publication. “I don’t want to leave Austin, but what choice do I have?”