Denison ISD is building a plan that would let its most effective teachers collect state-funded raises of several thousand to more than $25,000 a year, and trustees will hear where that work stands at their meeting Tuesday.
The Teacher Incentive Allotment update is listed as an information item, with no vote, on the agenda for the board's 6:30 p.m. regular meeting on Nov. 17. A presentation posted with the agenda, prepared by Superintendent Dr. David Kirkbride, special programs director Jacki Woolford and career and technical education director Dr. Dustin Anderson, lays out how the system would work.
How the money would be earned
The allotment, created by the Legislature in House Bill 3, pays districts extra state money for teachers who earn one of four designations. According to the presentation, a Denison teacher could receive up to:
- $6,271 a year as Acknowledged
- $10,452 a year as Recognized
- $17,723 a year as Exemplary
- $25,085 a year as Master
Teachers would have to clear two bars: an average score on the state's T-TESS classroom observation rubric and a share of their students hitting growth targets. The presentation lists the state's guide points, from a 3.5 average and 50% of students meeting growth for Acknowledged up to 4.5 and 70% for Master, and notes that Denison's approved plan will set the final standards.
A designation would last five years.
Three waves of teachers
The district would bring teachers in by subject. The first group, whose classroom data would be gathered in 2027-28, covers math and reading from pre-K 3 through eighth grade, Algebra I, English I, fifth- and eighth-grade science, Biology, eighth-grade social studies, U.S. History and PE classes that use Fitnessgram. The presentation puts their earliest possible payout at Aug. 31, 2029.
Sixth- and seventh-grade science and social studies, AP courses, other high school core classes and CTE would follow with 2028-29 data. Fine arts, languages other than English and PE without Fitnessgram would come last, using 2029-30 data, with possible payouts by Aug. 31, 2031.
The timeline says the district is designing the system this school year and must apply by April 2027. Year-one data would go to Texas Tech for validation in October 2028. "Nothing counts this year," the slide reads.
