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Livingston Parish School Board approves 2025–26 differentiated compensation plan; union urges cost-of-living increase instead
Summary
The Livingston Parish School Board approved its 2025–26 differentiated compensation distribution plan, keeping a teacher effectiveness stipend and creating leadership stipends. A representative of the Livingston Federation of Teachers urged that the funds instead be used for a districtwide cost-of-living adjustment.
The Livingston Parish School Board voted to approve its 2025–26 differentiated compensation distribution plan, keeping a teacher-effectiveness stipend and allocating additional funds for instructional and leadership coaches.
The plan approved by the board retains an effectiveness stipend of $300 for teachers rated highly effective and allocates stipends for coaches and teacher-leaders: $1,500 for instructional coaches not already receiving a stipend, $2,500 for district literacy and numeracy coaches and academic interventionists, and $1,000 per teacher providing school-level leadership, with school distributions scaled by each school’s number of teachers.
District staff summarized the plan and historic stipend amounts, saying the board paid annual teacher-effectiveness stipends from 2013 to 2023 at tiers of $100, $200 and $300 for emerging, proficient and highly effective ratings and increased those amounts in 2023–24. Staff reported the total cost of the teacher-effectiveness stipends for 2024–25 was $1,109,000, with Livingston Parish Public Schools (LPPS) responsible for $638,000 and the remainder charged to differentiated compensation funds. Staff estimated the 2025–26 cost would be roughly the same, with $471,429 charged to differentiated compensation funds and $638,000 charged to LPPS. Staff told the board that if funds remain after the 2025–26 school year they would be used in 2026–27 for additional highly effective teacher stipends and leadership stipends as funds allow.
Richard Baker, representing the Livingston Federation of Teachers and School Employees and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and School Employees, urged the board to use the funds for a cost-of-living adjustment rather than tying pay increases to performance measures. "It is hard for educators who are doing their best to be told that they must perform better in order to earn an effectiveness stipend," Baker said. "We would ask the board to consider using these funds instead to provide a cost of living adjustment to all employees." Baker also described statewide survey results he collects for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers to underscore concerns about teacher pay and the local impact.
Board member Lee moved to accept the differentiated compensation plan; Rosell seconded. The board voted by voice and the motion carried.
The board's approved plan allocates remaining differentiated compensation funds first to effectiveness stipends and leadership stipends for 2025–26, with any additional balance carried into 2026–27 for the same purposes. The board did not adopt a districtwide cost-of-living adjustment at this meeting.
Board materials and staff remarks indicated the state allotment for differentiated compensation decreased from the previous year by $1,055; staff reported the allotment was released to LPPS on Sept. 12, 2025. Staff also noted the state allows differentiated compensation funds to be spent in four categories: stipends for teachers in state-designated critical shortage areas, stipends for highly effective teachers, stipends for teachers in schools with an 85% or higher economically disadvantaged rate, and stipends for teachers in leadership positions.
The district will proceed to distribute the stipends in 2025–26 as approved; if funds remain they will be used the following school year as described by staff.
