KILLEEN, Texas — With a new year and a new salary, all Killeen ISD employees could receive a 2.25 percent bump in pay.
“There’s still potential state legislation that could pass. They wanted to put something out now so we can continue to recruit new teachers to the district and retain those that are already here,” said Killeen ISD Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, Taina Maya.
The Killeen ISD Board of Trustees passed the increase during their meeting Tuesday evening. The school board also increased the starting teacher salary to $57,000 next year — this gives them the highest pay in the region.
“We’ve been able to really kind of grow our first year teachers and keep them. We provide support to them throughout the entire school year. They have a mentor and they have training sessions,” Maya said.
These raises come just a year after teachers received an eight percent raise in 2022, while all other employees got a six percent raise.
“We just don’t think it’s enough. 2.25 percent is not enough given the rising cost of living,” said Jason Wiley with the Killeen Educators Association.
Wylie said more needs to be done especially for hourly district workers.
“This is a group of employees where so many of them are not making a living wage, and they need dollars — not cents,” Wylie said.
Wylie said the association believes the district should set minimum wage for staff to $16 an hour.
“We know so many of our hourly employees are even struggling with two jobs. We believe they were kind of left behind last year and it’s time for the district to make it for them," Wylie said.
Killeen ISD officials said they give annual raises to employees every year, and they also plan on revisiting pay increases if new legislation passes during the special session.
