Houston ISD restores stipends for some teachers who sponsor extracurriculars

HISD announced its compensation plan for the upcoming academic year in early March, including a link to all positions that would be eligible to earn stipends during the upcoming school year. The district offers stipends for duties that are unrelated to an employee’s primary job, such as working days outside of their normal schedule. The posted list initially did not include several positions, such as academic coaches, teacher mentors, speech and debate sponsors and department chairs, who earn stipends this year. The district also removed stipends for sponsoring yearbook, newspaper, student council or robotics in New Education System schools but kept the stipends for employees at non-NES schools.

Jessica Neyman, HISD’s chief human resources officer, said the removed stipends were “an inefficiency” and “extraneous.” She said HISD expects employees to go above and beyond in a high performance culture, and the district was “not going to nickel and dime” every time an employee did something a little extra. Since then, HISD has restored stipends for a few positions. The district's website now states that speech and debate sponsors in middle school will earn a yearly stipend of $1,010, while sponsors in high school will earn $1,930 next year. Academic coaches — who work with students in middle and high schools after hours to prepare for local, state and national academic competitions — will earn a annual stipend of $800 next year. Under the previous compensation plan for the 2023-24 school year, middle school debate sponsors earn stipends of $720, $1,010 or $1,295, while high school debate sponsors earn $1,360, $1,930 or $2,500, depending on their level experience. Academic coaches earn stipends of $500, $800 or $1,100, regardless of if they teach middle or high school.