More staff, not bigger raises

Key facts

• All staff, 2018-19 to 2024-25: up about 14%¹
• Students: up about 6%¹
• Payroll per staff member, after inflation: down about 1%²
• Special-ed students: up about 43%; special-ed teachers up about 284³
• Central office average actual salary (regular duties only), total: about $4.9 million a year⁴

In short

From 2018-19 to 2024-25, staff grew about 14% while students grew about 6%.¹ Pay per staff member, after inflation, fell about 1%.² Special education accounts for most of the extra teachers: special-ed students rose about 43%.³

Why it matters to your tax bill: payroll is most of day-to-day spending, which the operating part of your tax pays for.

Related: money out · teacher pay · central office · reserves and deficit

More people, not bigger raises

From 2018-19 to 2024-25, the district’s staff grew about 14%. Students grew about 6%.¹

Payroll is about 9 of every 10 new dollars in day-to-day spending.⁵ Most of that growth came from more people. After inflation, payroll per staff member fell about 1%.²

Raises did not keep up with prices. Average actual salary (regular duties only) rose about 18% for teachers, 15% for central office staff and 12% for school leaders. Prices rose about 25%.⁶

Think of a store that hires more clerks but can’t give raises. The payroll goes up. Each clerk’s paycheck buys less.

Where the new staff went

Group	Growth, 2018-19 to 2024-25	Source
All staff	about +14%	State staff data1
Teachers	about +16% (2,690 to 3,119)	District audit7
Special-ed teachers	303.5 to 587.4 (+284)	State staff data3
School leaders (principals and assistants)	about +27%	District audit7
Central office	about +34% (low 2018-19 start; see below)	State staff data4
Students	about +6%	State data1

The state’s count and the district audit count staff in different ways. They don’t always match. We use the state count for all staff. For school leaders, we use the audit’s +27%; the state’s count is higher, and we have not settled why.¹⁷

Why so many more teachers?

Mostly special education. Special-ed students grew from 4,728 to 6,759, about 43%. Other students grew only about 1.5%. The district added about 284 special-ed teachers.³

Other teachers grew about 6%, about the same as students.³ That is our math.

How Leander compares with the state (2024-25)

The state’s 2024-25 report gives one snapshot:⁸

Measure	Leander ISD	Texas
Teachers as a share of all staff	55.2%	48.3%
Central office as a share of staff	0.6%	1.2%
Students per teacher	13.6	15.0
Average teacher pay	$61,716	$63,751
Average central-office pay	$144,894	$118,447
Teacher turnover	16.8%	18.8%

In short: more of the staff are teachers, classes are smaller, and the central office is a small share. But teachers earn a little less than the state average, while central-office staff earn more. Total staff: about 5,649 full-time equivalents, including about 3,119 teachers.⁸

The central office

The state’s count shows the central office up about 34% since 2018-19.⁴ But that start year is low: the count fell from about 48 to 25 in one year. The state data do not say why. Compared with 2016-17, it is smaller now. It is also small: about 34 people, with total average actual salary (regular duties only) of about $4.9 million a year.⁴ Its average pay is the highest of five nearby districts.⁴ Measured another way, central administration costs about $252 per student, or 2.18% of operating spending. That is 5th of 11 similar districts.⁹

The district’s side

• Federal law (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) requires special education services. Special-ed students grew about 43% in these years.³
• Pay per person fell after inflation, so most of the growth was not raises.²
• Average teacher pay is below the average of four nearby districts, and below a state peer-group figure.¹⁰

Newer state numbers (2020 to 2025 reports)

The state’s yearly reports from 2020 to 2025 give a second view.

• All staff: up 12.4%. Students: up 3.0%.¹¹ The district’s own audit report shows a bigger rise, about 22%. It counts staff a different way, so the two numbers don’t match. Starting one year earlier, from 2018-19, staff grew about 14% while students grew about 6%.¹²
• Special-ed teachers: Leander’s grew the fastest of five nearby districts. But it ends in the middle, at about 11.5 special-ed students per teacher. Round Rock has 12.2 and Pflugerville 10.9. Special-ed payroll rose about 55%, much less than the teacher count. The public data do not explain the difference.¹³
• School office leaders (principals and assistants): up 35.5% in one year, 2023. The state as a whole rose 14.5% that year.¹⁴ The public data do not show the cause.

Questions to ask

• How does the district explain the gap between the state’s and the audit’s counts of school leaders?
• How many new jobs did the district add for new schools, and where is that reported?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: We removed three guesses about how staff were counted, and now say the extra special-ed teachers account for most of the growth instead of explaining it.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We took internal document numbers out of the source notes.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Rewrote the questions to ask so each is open, neutral and addressed to the public body.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We re-checked the staffing math. We tied a district’s-side point to its source.

What you can do or watch next

• Watch staffing changes in the next budget, adopted each June.

What we still don’t know

• Why the state’s and the audit’s counts of school leaders differ.
• How many of the new jobs were added for the 2023 bond projects or new schools.

Numbers marked “our math” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.

See also teacher pay and central office.

Footnotes

1. Texas Education Agency, Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR), staff files, 2018-19 and 2024-25: total staff +14.2%; enrollment +6.4%. Our math. The district audit’s Table 15 shows +22.5%, but its 2024 jump looks like a change in how staff were counted. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. Texas Education Agency, PEIMS actual financial data, payroll (objects 61xx, without the state’s on-behalf retirement payments), $277.2 million (2018-19) to $393.9 million (2024-25), adjusted for inflation and divided by TAPR staff: −0.8%. Our math. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. TAPR, 2018-19 and 2024-25: special-ed students 4,728 to 6,759 (+43.0%); all students 39,939 to 42,507; other students 35,211 to 35,748 (+1.5%); special-ed teachers 303.5 to 587.4 staff; other teachers 2,386.5 to 2,531.3. The 2024-25 counts both come from the report’s membership column (the state’s fall count). Our math. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. TAPR, central administration: 25.0 staff (2018-19) to 33.6 (2024-25); average actual salary (regular duties only) $144,894 in 2024-25, about $4.9 million in total. Peers: Round Rock, Georgetown, Hays and Pflugerville. Our math. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. TEA PEIMS actual financial data, 2018-19 and 2024-25: payroll +$126.7 million of +$139.3 million operating growth. This payroll includes retirement payments the state makes for the district (“on-behalf” payments). Without them, payroll grew $116.7 million of $129.3 million, also about 9 in 10. Our math. See Where the money goes. ↩

6. TAPR average actual salary (regular duties only), 2018-19 to 2024-25: teachers +18.3%, central administration +14.9%, school administration +11.6%; consumer prices +25.4% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U). Our math. ↩

7. Leander ISD, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 2025, Table 15 (staff by function: school leadership +27.3%) and Table 16 (teachers 2,690 to 3,119). ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Texas Education Agency, Texas Academic Performance Report 2024-25, Leander ISD (246913), staff information. ↩ ↩²

9. TEA PEIMS actual financial data, fiscal 2016 and 2025; our ranking among 11 similar districts. ↩

10. TAPR, 2024-25: average teacher salary $61,716. The average of four nearby districts (Hays, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Round Rock) is $62,977. The $65,128 figure is the TEA peer-group average from the district’s Efficiency Audit, Fig. 10 (Sept. 17, 2026 board packet); it is not a TAPR or nearby-district figure. ↩

11. Texas Education Agency, TAPR district reports 2020 to 2025: total staff 5,026.7 to 5,649.4; enrollment 41,277 to 42,507. Our math. The ACFR’s ~22% uses its own staff count. ↩

12. Texas Education Agency, 2018-19 TAPR staff download: total staff 4,947.4, enrollment 39,939; compared with 2025: staff +14.2%, enrollment +6.4%. Our math. ↩

13. TEA TAPR 2019 to 2025, special-ed teachers and students, five nearby districts; TEA PEIMS special-education payroll, 2019-20 to 2024-25 (+54.6%). Our math. ↩

14. Same reports: school leadership staff 122.8 (2022) to 166.4 (2023); state change from the same reports. 2023 likely includes reclassification. ↩