The Judson Independent School District Board of Trustees on Monday approved a plan to apply the state
Staff Support Retention Allotment (SSRA) and local funds to raise nonadministrative staff pay, approving a 1.5% midpoint increase for eligible staff and using remaining SSRA funds to offset part of the local cost. The motion was made by Trustee Kenoyer and seconded by Trustee Macias; the chair announced the measure passed. The board and district staff warned the plan will require additional local funding beyond the state allotment to cover employer benefit costs.

District leaders said the new state law provides specific teacher retention allotments (a $5,000 payment for eligible experienced teachers and $2,500 for certain mid-tenure teachers) but that the SSRA is separate and is intended for other staff who do not have supervisory duties. Superintendent Dr. Fields and Finance staff briefed the board on several distribution scenarios for the roughly $830,000 in SSRA dollars the district will receive, and on how each scenario changes the local fund balance requirement to cover employer-side benefit costs.

"What we're looking at is what how we're going to delineate the $830,000 to the 1,400 people who are eligible to receive that," the district's finance staff said during the briefing, noting eligibility excludes administrators and other supervisors. The board discussed multiple options that combined the state-mandated teacher payments with SSRA-funded increases for nurses, counselors, librarians and other campus support staff, and how much, if any, of the SSRA the district would supplement from local funds to widen the pool of recipients.

Trustees repeatedly emphasized the political context: the state established the specific teacher allotments and the district must follow state rules for who is eligible. "The state has come back and said, this is how much money we're gonna give you for teachers... we're not going to give you money separately for teachers from 0 to 2 years," Dr. Fields told the board. Several trustees said they were uncomfortable with leaving whole groups of employees without an increase; others worried about further draining the district's fund balance.

After debate the board approved the option presented as "Option 5" in the staff packet: apply the teacher retention allotment required by statute for eligible teachers, and use SSRA dollars to provide a 1.5% midpoint raise for eligible, nonadministrative staff (excluding district of innovation 0-2 year teacher designations), with the district covering employer-side benefits that exceed the SSRA. Trustee Kenoyer made the motion; Trustee Macias seconded. The chair announced the motion passed.

District staff said the approved option uses most of the SSRA but leaves a modest SSRA shortfall that will be covered from local funds; they estimated the additional local impact after employer benefits at roughly the amount shown in the board packet. Staff committed to produce a detailed payroll run and employee-level breakdown as soon as possible so employees can see the plan
calculated at the individual level. Dr. Fields said the district will post details and begin the distribution process next week.

Why this matters: The state-provided teacher allotments are designed to be paid this school year and apply only to specific categories of teachers; SSRA is the state tool to help districts support other staff. The Judson vote spreads district resources beyond classroom teachers to a broad set of campus-facing staff but requires the district to supplement employer-side costs from local funds, increasing the 2025-26 budget pressure.

The board directed staff to publish employee-level details and to return to the board with any required technical adjustments during the next business meeting. No specific employee names, dollar amounts by person, or payroll runs were distributed in the public meeting; staff said they will provide those calculations to employees and the board after the vote.