Keller ISD’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Thursday to approve a $346 million general budget for the 2026-27 school year, with pay raises included for every employee in the district.
The board approved the budget at a special meeting on June 25 with a unanimous vote, according to a press release from the district.
What Keller ISD Employees Are Getting
Under the proposed budget, every Keller ISD employee is getting a raise – though the size of that raise depends on where you fall on the pay scale.
Workers on a formal salary schedule get two bumps: a “step increase,” an automatic increase tied to years of service, plus an additional 1% raise on top of that. Everyone else gets a flat 1% increase. The district is also sweetening its health insurance contribution by $25 a month or $300 over the course of a year.
There’s also the possibility of a one-time bonus for all staff at some point during the school year – but district administrators stopped short of promising one. They said they need to see more “revenue data” this fall before they can say whether the money will be there.
In raw dollars, the approved budget shows what those commitments cost: total payroll is projected to climb from about $170.6 million last year to roughly $178.7 million in 2026-27, an increase of around $8 million. And of all the money Keller ISD spends, more than half – about 57 cents of every dollar – goes directly toward “classroom instruction.”
The district’s new budget also projects $346.4 million in revenue and $346.1 million in spending – leaving a small surplus of just over $300,000.
To balance the books, they cut nearly $13 million from last year’s budget while still covering rising costs and lower expected revenue.
A Step Down From Last Year
The raises are noticeably smaller than what Keller ISD employees received a year ago.
Under House Bill 2, passed during the 89th Texas Legislative Session, teachers with five or more years of experience were mandated a $5,000 raise, and teachers with three or four years received $2,500.
However, those raises were a one-time boost – they don’t repeat the following year automatically.
How The Raise Compares Across North Texas
The 1% across-the-board raise puts Keller ISD on the lower end of what DFW-area districts are offering this year.
McKinney ISD approved a 3.5% salary increase for all certified teachers, non-exempt employees, and eligible exempt employees at its April board meeting.
Plano ISD also gave a minimum 2% raise to its staff this year – a slight drop-off from the 3% increase the year before.
Fort Worth ISD, operating under a state TEA takeover, announced an automatic 5% raise for classroom teachers of record at “non-ELEVATE” campuses, with high-performing teachers at ELEVATE campuses eligible to earn between $88,000 and $100,000. For context, ELEVATE campuses generally receive additional state funding and resources due to lower academic performance ratings, while non-ELEVATE campuses do not qualify for that extra support.
Dallas ISD‘s 2026-27 budget set a certified teacher minimum at $68,000 and bumped its minimum wage to $17.50 an hour – the highest among the majority of other DFW districts.
By comparison, Keller ISD’s 1% increase – while technically a raise for every employee in the building – still trails nearly every comparable district in the Metroplex heading into the new school year.
It’s also worth noting that Keller ISD has had a rough few years.
The district nearly split in two – a proposal controversial enough that Superintendent Tracy Johnson resigned over it before the plan was ultimately scrapped in March 2025, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The district’s budget problems aren’t new. They have been cutting staff and various educational programs since 2024 while dealing with inflation, flat state funding, and shrinking enrollment.
The Dallas Express reached out to multiple Keller ISD board members for comment on when staff can expect an official update on that bonus, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
