Caddo Parish proposes balanced budget with 6% across-the-board pay increase for employees

The Caddo Parish School Board’s budget work session on June 22 opened with staff presenting a balanced general-fund proposal for 2026–27 that would include a permanent 6% across-the-board salary increase for all employees effective July 1.

Staff framed the proposal as fiscally cautious but sustainable: revenue is budgeted at $439,699,000 and expenditures at $439,692,000, producing a small reported operational surplus and an estimated ending fund balance of $194.9 million. The presentation noted the district is projecting a modest 250-student enrollment decline in the coming year and identified state Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) dollars as roughly 40.5% of the revenue mix, followed by property and sales taxes.

The salary changes in the proposal are both permanent and targeted: the 6% increase would raise base pay across salary schedules, staff said, and the budget also includes a 2.5% increase in coaching stipends and continuation of a $200 materials-and-supplies allowance for teachers (expanded from a 10-school pilot last year). Staff described the 6% pay action as intended to preserve the relative integrity of step schedules and to help with recruitment and retention; staff estimated the average teacher salary would move from about $62,000 to roughly $66,500 under the plan.

Board members asked for additional detail on distributional effects. Several members noted that a percentage raise yields much smaller dollar increases for lowest-paid hourly and paraprofessional staff than for higher-paid supervisors. Board members asked staff to model alternatives — flat-dollar supplements or targeted top-ups for employees earning below specific thresholds — and staff agreed to provide the comparative math at a future session.

Staff also flagged several assumptions embedded in the proposal: that local sales taxes will remain modestly stronger (eight of the last nine months were up year-over-year), property-tax growth will be near 1%, and the state MFP will show no general growth. Staff noted the legislature removed a proposed $47-per-student increase this session, which would have netted the district an estimated $1.5 million.

The presentation closed with staff fielding operational questions on interest-income assumptions, special-revenue balances (including ESSER timing), and the district’s plan for budgeted position counts. Board members thanked staff for extensive work on the budget and asked staff to circulate requested detail prior to the next meeting, where board approval and a public hearing are scheduled.

The board did not vote on the budget at this work session; staff said they will ask for approval at the next regular meeting and will provide the detailed modeling requested by board members.