Lampasas ISD will submit its application to the Texas Education Agency in April to establish a local designation system as part of the Teacher Incentive Allotment program.
By the 2027-28 school year, some teachers within the district could see some significant gains in their salary due to the TIA program.
In July, the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a $3,000 contract with the Region 12 Education Service Center to serve as a support system as LISD develops its TIA plan.
Assistant Superintendent Dana Holomb said the last half-year of developing a plan has gone well for Lampasas.
“We are attending a meeting a month throughout this school year,” Holcomb said regarding sessions held with the Region 12 Education Service Center. “Additionally, we have a consultant that we are working with who has assisted other districts with their applications and has had great success with getting those approved through TEA.”
Established in 2019 by the Texas Legislature, the Teacher Incentive Allotment was created via House Bill 3 with the goal of providing six-figure salaries for teachers who succeed in the classroom and to boost pay for teachers in rural areas.
The TIA contains three designation levels that are awarded: “recognized,” “exemplary” and “master.” For LISD, the TIA’s webpage says the average campus allotment would be $5,998 (recognized), $11,997 (exemplary) and $21,994 (master).
Holcomb said LISD held a stakeholders committee meeting Oct. 28 to discuss plans for the district’s teacher incentive program, with 30 representatives from each campus across multiple levels and subjects. The meeting gave LISD staff the chance to understand how the district’s TIA plan would operate.
For the first year of the district’s program, eligible teachers will include fourth-grade reading and math, plus Algebra I, English I and English II teachers at the high school level. Holcomb said it is simpler to assess those teachers in core subjects with STAAR test results each year.
“We can always look at expanding [to other grade levels and subjects],” he said. “The service center meetings we are going to recommend to start small and make sure everybody in the district is aware of the process, and then you can expand to other subject areas beyond those that are STAAR tested.”
Holcomb said teachers in other subject areas who attended the stakeholders meeting understood why the district must start small with its incentive program.
“We believe it has been positive, and I believe the meeting helped with that,” the assistant superintendent said. “We included people that were in CTE areas and standalone classes, and I think everybody would love to be eligible with more financial incentives but understood it is difficult to determine if you have a stand-alone class like welding or chemistry.”
Teachers eligible for the TIA program will be scored on their teacher evaluation, which accounts for 30%, and student growth, which accounts for 70% of the overall score.
Holcomb said after LISD submits its application in April, the 2025-26 school year will serve as a data collection year for the program. Then, the district will send its data to Texas Tech University in October 2026. The TIA’s webpage says Texas Tech reviews the data and shares validation results with the Texas Education Agency in February each year. For LISD, that step would occur in 2027.
The earliest teachers could see additional compensation is the summer of 2027. Holcomb noted that Texas Tech’s role in the program ensures the process is done fairly.
“If we have too many teachers that we have scored well enough to be masters, then Texas Tech says ‘Hold on a minute, you are out of line with what we are seeing across the state,’ ” Holcomb said. “That is why we have to be careful and ensure we are objectively evaluating teachers and not being too tough or too lenient.”
Of the awarded funds, 90% go toward teacher compensation or the designated teacher’s campus. Holcomb said the Lampasas district still is considering how it will pay out awarded funds.
“Say teacher A earns all of it based on their evaluation and scores of their students. A district could say we want to share across the board within that subject area,” Holcomb said. “Or, others have said no, it is really based on what they did and want to give as much to that individual teacher.”
In an interview last month with the Dispatch Record, State Rep. David Spiller pointed to the TIA program as a means to increase pay for public school teachers, especially those in rural school districts like Lampasas.
Holcomb said the LISD is always open to increased support for its teachers.
“Anything we can do to recruit, retain and incentivize teachers,” he said. “I believe we have great teachers who are working hard, but if we can reward them with higher salaries, then absolutely.”
