In early December, the district announced its intention to update the master schedule for the next school year, providing teachers with more planning time and saving the district millions of dollars. After receiving feedback from families and staff, district leaders will implement the following changes: 

• An eight-period block schedule that preserves electives, does an eight-period A/B block schedule for four days and one day with a straight eight-period schedule. This is what most secondary schools are already doing.
• One hour of early release each week for staff to have common planning time.
• Elementary and secondary teachers will have common planning time built into the day, which for elementary teachers will be the first time they have had this.
• This new schedule will reduce teacher vacancies, address the substitute shortage, and save $21 million.

The administration will also be proposing pay raises in the 2022-23 budget the trustees will vote on in June:

• Increasing the starting salary from $13.50 to $16 an hour and increasing all pay for classified employees. This pay raise for approximately 2,000 workers will be paid for with the savings realized by the schedule.
• Increasing teacher pay by 2% of the pay scale midpoint and then an additional $1,000 for each of the district’s approximately 5,000 teachers on top of that.

What: Superintendent Stephanie S. Elizalde and district leaders will be available for interviews to share more about the district’s schedule and budget updates.

When: 12:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 13

Where: Austin ISD Central Office, 4000 S. Interstate 35

The press conference will be live-streamed on the Austin ISD Facebook page.

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