COUPLAND — Coupland Independent School District reviewed teacher and staff raises and assessed the use of House Bill 2 funds during a budget workshop.
Held before its regular monthly school board meeting Thursday, July 31, Superintendent Earl Parcell presented trustees with financial charts created by the Texas Association of School Boards. For the first time in many years, Coupland ISD partnered with TASB to provide the district with breakdowns of pay systems and staffing reviews.
“You’ve got to come back every now and again and make adjustments,” Parcell said.
The TASB representative provided surrounding school district numbers for comparison. While Parcell acknowledged Coupland ISD was never going to catch up to some of the larger area schools in terms of pay, TASB created a minimum, midpoint and maximum pay structure for the district to view how to keep its pay scale competitive. TASB also provided recommendations for the district to budget for regular pay raises.
With TASB’s chart, “you can see where the newly hired teacher with minimal experience would be (on the scale) and where the seasoned teacher would be,” Parcell said.
Parcell noted the district was not going to compete with pay, but “let’s compete with packages,” he said.
One of Parcell’s suggestions to trustees was the creation of a teacher stipend.
“For every five years of service, a teacher receives $500,” Parcell said.
This proposal is similar to the teacher stipend plan recently approved at Taylor Independent School District.
Through TASB’s district review, Coupland ISD learned some of its support staff, office assistants and instructional aides were higher paid when compared to other districts. “On the flip side, our custodians and cafeteria were paid very low,” Parcell said.
To try and make up that difference, Parcell recommended a fivepercent raise for maintenance, custodial and child nutrition staff and a three-percent increase for other non-teaching staff.
With some of the discretionary funds from HB 2, Parcell proposed the purchase of a used school bus from Pflugerville ISD while placing “the dinosaur,” as he called the district’s oldest bus, in reserve. When noting the cost of repairs to the older bus, including one bill of $18,000, Parcell noted the price tag for a newer bus did not seem so outrageous.
The district’s eventual goal is to buy brand new school buses, but the plan to buy used buses from Pflugerville ISD has been in the works for many months.
The construction of Coupland Secondary School for middle and high school students is underway and still on schedule to open for the 2026-27 school year.
The next Coupland ISD school board meeting is set for Thursday, Aug. 14, at 6 p.m. in the school library at 620 S. Commerce St.
Rev. Dr. Burt Burleson, the new pastor at St. Peter’s Church of Coupland, and his wife Julie. Photo courtesy St. Peter’s Church of Coupland
Backpacks at New Sweden Church to be donated to needy students. Photo courtesy of New Sweden Church
