BEEVILLE, Texas — West Osos ISD, Beeville ISD and Taft ISD are a few rural school districts that are having a difficult time keeping teachers, but their districts' board of trustees have approved pay raises that they hope will incentivize teachers to stay.
Many of our local school districts start first-year teachers off at $52,000, including Corpus Christi ISD. Gregory-Portland ISD is one of the highest with a starting salary of $62,000.
Beeville ISD Board of Trustees President Orlando Vasquez said in order for Beeville ISD to stay competitive with other districts, it will increase teacher salaries by two percent which will average the teacher salary to $57,491.
"Our teachers are important to us," Vasquez said. "We know there are shortages everywhere and we're trying to do everything to show our appreciation to them. We've been very fortunate to try to squeeze everything we can out of our budgets to make sure we pay our teachers first."
Beeville teachers Rose Brunes and Amber Segovia said the pay raises could help teachers and ultimately students.
"As they go through the same teachers, that consistency is so important," Brunes said, "And it does a lot for how they're receptive to learning in the classrooms and feeling comfortable."
At West Oso ISD, Superintendent Kimberly Moore said the new salary will be between $51,000 to $67,000, depending on experience.
"Unfortunately quite a few of our teachers that did leave were to surrounding districts that had a higher salary and that was where we had to prioritize in order to stay competitive by increasing salaries," Moore said.
Vasquez said teachers play an important part in student's future success and this pay raise is an appreciation of their hard work.
"You know unfortunately, we're limited in our funds so we have to be strategic with our monies we have, but teachers always come first," Vasquez said.