Keller plans to give teachers 1% pay raise next school year as district cuts budget
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that the district is expected to give raises of at least 1%. An earlier version was incorrect.
Despite ongoing financial difficulties, the Keller school district is expected to give teachers at least a 1% pay raise for the 2025-26 school year, though district spokesperson Bryce Nieman cautioned that nothing will be finalized until next year’s budget is approved.
News of the anticipated pay increase was shared in an April 15 community-wide email from interim Superintendent Cory Wilson. In the same message, Wilson shared an update on budget cuts for the upcoming school year aimed at reducing a $9.4 million deficit.
According to the latest messaging, campus-level staffing reductions will save $3.5 million. When budget cuts were announced at the Feb. 27 school board meeting, Keller’s Chief Operations Officer John Allison said the district would employ fewer teachers at its middle and high schools, raising the student-teacher ratio by 0.5. Nieman said that would save approximately $3 million. The additional $500,000 in savings will be achieved through attrition and staffing adjustments in response to declining enrollment.
There are no plans to increase the student-teacher ratio at elementary and intermediate schools. Keller administrators will present a final proposed 2025-26 budget to the district’s board of trustees in June.
News broke in January that board trustees were considering a plan to split the district in two using U.S. 377 as the dividing line, effectively detaching the schools in the Keller city limits from those in Fort Worth. Plan proponents saw this as a way to combat the district’s funding problems. Residents, however, roundly criticized the proposal, and it was dropped in March after being deemed too costly.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 3:49 PM.