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Lafayette Parish superintendent outlines plan to raise teacher pay, propose new stipends and bonuses
Summary
Superintendent presented a draft 2025–26 teacher pay and incentive plan proposing a $50,000 starting salary, across‑the‑board increases and new stipends and bonuses; funding would come from district savings and sales tax revenues and the plan remains a draft with school and teacher feedback to be gathered.
Superintendent Touchet presented a draft proposal for the Lafayette Parish School System (LPSS) 2025–26 teacher salary scale and incentive plan, saying the plan would raise the starting salary and add stipends and performance bonuses.
Touchet told the school board that the proposal is “a first look” and a draft for board and public feedback. “We increase teacher salaries for every single teacher here in Lafayette Parish and that means we start off with 0 years experience and $50,000 for those teachers,” he said, describing the baseline pay the administration is proposing.
The superintendent said the proposal would include across‑the‑board raises that vary by experience level — “probably equate at different times from $4,000 to $5,000 worth of an increase across the board” — and targeted incentives. He described a planned $1,800 early‑term stipend for certified teachers with good attendance, $2,000 hiring incentives for teachers at hard‑to‑staff schools, and year‑end growth bonuses “up to $3,000” tied to measures such as LEAP, VAM or DIBELS. Touchet also proposed new stipends for sponsors of extracurricular clubs and activities, and additional pay for coaching and directors who perform extra duties.
On funding, Touchet said roughly $3.5 million would come from district optimization and that staffing changes produced an additional $4.2 million; he also referenced using a portion of the district’s sales tax revenue to support the plan. He stressed the proposal is not a final budget item and described it as “a solid plan” the administration will refine.
The superintendent said staff will take the draft to several schools for feedback — listing Southside, Karen Crow, Acadian and STEM — and to teachers, with a goal of returning a more developed proposal to the board in May.
No formal vote or binding action was taken on the draft; Touchet repeatedly described it as informational and subject to change. The board did not adopt the scale or incentives at the meeting.
Ending — The superintendent framed the proposal as an effort to improve recruitment and retention: “This will help us with recruitment. This will help us keep our teachers,” he said. The administration will collect feedback at school meetings and present a revised proposal to the board at a future meeting.
