LISD Approved 3% Raises for Staff — Here's What the Legislature Had to Do With the Delay

If you have a teacher, a counselor, a bus driver, or a custodian in your family who works for Lewisville ISD, their paycheck is finally getting a bump. The LISD board voted June 9 to approve a 3% raise for staff — but the timing wasn't arbitrary. The board couldn't move until Austin did.

Here's the mechanical reality most people don't see: Texas school districts live on a state-local funding formula, and until the 89th Legislature locked in House Bill 2, LISD couldn't finalize its own budget with any confidence. HB 2 passed the Texas House on May 29 and Governor Abbott signed it on June 4. The LISD board met five days later. Not a coincidence.

The bill delivered real money. For LISD specifically, HB 2 will contribute $17 million of the $22.3 million in planned raises for the coming school year. The state-directed piece covers teachers with experience — teachers with three or four years get a $2,500 raise; those with five or more years get $5,000. The board's 3% vote filled in the gaps: everyone HB 2 left out, which is a long list. Teachers in their first or second year. Counselors. Diagnosticians. Nurses. Librarians. Maintenance workers. Bus drivers. Administrative support. All of them.

And then health insurance took a bite. The district's medical premiums are going up $51 a month. A first- or second-year teacher who gets a $2,074 raise actually nets $1,462 after that insurance increase. For administrative support, a $1,030 raise becomes a net of $416. Instructional support staff clears just $215 net on an $830 raise. Trustee Sheila Taylor put it plainly at the meeting: "You think 3% and to somebody, maybe the legislators, sounds like a lot of money."

The context that matters: LISD gave no raises at all during the 2024-25 school year. That wasn't the board being stingy — it was a district grinding through declining enrollment, rising costs, and, as the district put it, "the Legislature's inaction to adjust public school funding." Two straight years of belt-tightening through staff attrition and central office cuts. The basic allotment — the per-student funding number that drives most of what a district can spend — hadn't moved since 2019.

So 3% lands in 2025 after a six-year freeze. With cumulative inflation since 2019, that math doesn't fully close the gap. It's better than nothing. Whether it's enough to convince staff who spent months uncertain about their compensation — while every neighboring district was recruiting — is a different question.

Watch this: LISD is still projecting a $9.9 million budget deficit for 2025-26, even with HB 2 money flowing in. The raises are funded. The deficit is still there. The board held two years of hard cuts to get here, and this year found $20 million to make staff whole. That matters. But the structural problem — a local district unable to make basic compensation promises until a legislative session concludes every other year — didn't go away. Next session starts in January 2027. The clock is already running.