Highland Park ISD’s teacher salaries will be among the area’s highest in the 2025-26 school year, a massive change from just five years ago when the district ranked last out of 25 school districts in pay for educators without master’s degrees, and near rock bottom for those with graduate degrees.
First-year teachers with master’s degrees will earn $66,000 in the 2025-26 school year, the most of 24 comparison districts. Those without graduate degrees will earn $63,000, the sixth-most of the 24 districts, deputy superintendent Shorr Heathcote told the district’s board of trustees during an Aug. 12 meeting.
The salaries of almost all HPISD teachers will be in the area’s top quartile, Heathcote said. Superintendent Mike Rockwood added that teachers have received a stipend that is not reflected in their salaries, and which effectively pushes all teacher pay into the top quartile.
The new data means that Highland Park has blown past its goal of boosting compensation for most teachers with master’s degrees or national board certifications into the area’s top quartile by 2026.
But that doesn’t mean that the district can rest on its laurels, Heathcote told the board.
“There’s still a lot of work to do to make sure that we continue to move up, and hopefully outpace the other districts,” she said.
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All HPISD teachers received 7 to 10% pay increases in the 2025-26 school year.
“I don’t know when Highland Park has had that type of raise,” assistant superintendent for business services Scott Drillette said in June when the pay boost was announced. “But it’s exciting to be a part of that.”
The raise was made possible by the passage of November’s $137.3 million bond, staffing efficiencies, pledges from HPISD’s parent-teacher associations and organizations, and the passage of Texas House Bill 2.
“Thank you to everyone who worked on that,” board president Maryjane Bonfield said of the salary boost. “And that’s administration, but also community members, voters. It’s a team effort. Thank you. It’s exciting.”
