Lubbock Independent School District’s Board of Trustees has approved a new tax rate and teacher raises in its 2025-2026 budget.
In Thursday’s meeting, trustees unanimously approved a new tax rate of $0.86 per $100 valuation, a decrease of about 4 cents from last year’s $0.90 tax rate. This comes despite a $7.6 million deficit reported with the school district’s budget earlier this summer.
Officials with the district reported this deficit as school districts around the state were waiting for the final details on the newly approved HB 2, the Texas legislature’s $8.5 billion boost to public school funds. Texas lawmakers described this as a “historic” increase in education funding for the state, with increasing teacher compensation as a focus of the bill.
Alongside the new tax rate, Lubbock ISD’s Trustees approved a raise for teachers’ starting salaries across the district to $50,900, an average 13% increase for all certified teachers, as well as a 14% increase for paraprofessional staff.
An April 2025 review from the National Education Association showed Texas as 18th in the country for average starting teacher salaries at $48,526. Lubbock ISD’s administrators believe this pay increase will make the district more competitive for new teachers and make sitting teachers more confident.
“I think we have to thank our legislators for hearing the outcry of the state to at least pave the path forward,” LISD Board president Beth Bridges said. “I wish we could do more. Hopefully, in future years, we can, and we will always keep our eye on that, so that we can do as much as we can for our teachers and for our professionals.”
Trustees have expressed frustration with legislators in the past over how state funds were allocated to assist public schools, contributing to consolidations last year that trustees described as “phase one” of considerations for further consolidations to save the district money as attendance shrinks.
Voters approved the district’s $290 million bond this summer to fund three new elementary school campuses, two middle school additions, infrastructure upgrades across the district, and expanded facilities for LISD’s career and technical education programs in middle school.
Still, trustees say the district will have to be careful moving forward. Trustee Nancy Sharp said she’s grateful for the help from the community and the state, but in light of the budget deficit, the district will still have to find every efficiency.
“We also have to recognize, we have to find ways to operate more efficiently, and we've gotten some help from our community with the bond election moving ahead, but that's going to take some time to come online,” Sharp said. “But we're grateful to be able to do this for educators and staff.”
District 4 Trustee Ryan Curry said maybe not this year, but continued consolidations will be part of the district’s planning over the next few years.
“There has to be, based on the age of our district, the size of our buildings, the age of our buildings, and just the lack of kids in neighborhoods that once used to have lots of kids,” Curry said. “So, to the community, in order for us to continue to try to maintain paying our staff a consistent cost of living adjustment, I think adjustments to how we do school and where we do school are going to continue to be in the discussion as we come.”
As with last year’s consolidations considered for Bean and Harwell Elementary schools, Curry encouraged the community to be part of each discussion for the future of the district.
“It's not to pick on any schools, any neighborhoods. It is to make sure that we are utilizing the assets that we have and the resources that we have because we cannot afford to keep every building open and continue to pay our people how we would like to in the future,” Curry said. “It's part of the reason why we haven't given very good raises in my seven years of being on here; the expenses are far too great.”
According to LISD superintendent Dr. Kathy Rollo, town halls will be held in the future as possible consolidations become part of the discussion moving forward.
Teacher pay raises will go into effect in September.