Superintendent Matias Segura \u2014 and other high-ranking employees in the superintendent\u2019s office \u2014 were among the highest-paid employees in the Austin Independent School District in the 2025-26 fiscal year, according to public records.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Segura is also the second-highest-paid superintendent in the Austin area,<\/a> according to an analysis of regional superintendent contracts. Last school year, he earned a few thousand dollars less than the Lake Travis ISD superintendent, who oversees a smaller district with around 11,000 students compared to Austin ISD\u2019s 69,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chief of Staff LaKesha Drinks, the second-highest-paid AISD employee in the 2025-26 fiscal year, earned about $150,000 less than\u00a0Segura. Drinks has been with the district for two decades, previously serving as the principal at Guerrero Thompson Elementary and later the executive director of school leadership,\u00a0where she supervised and evaluated all principals in\u00a0the district.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Can\u2019t see the full table? Scroll or swipe right to view additional columns, including stipends and total pay.<\/p>\n Just under half of the 30 highest-paid employees in AISD work in the superintendent’s office, including Segura, Drinks, four assistant superintendents, seven executive directors of school leadership and the special assistant to the superintendent, Angel Vales Lara.<\/p>\n Also on the\u00a0top salaried list are high-ranking executives in human resources, legal, operations, finance, special education, communication, information systems and police departments.<\/p>\n All employees on the top-paid list made at least $165,000. In comparison, the average Austin ISD teacher made $63,367 in 2024-25, according to TEA data.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Each top-paid employee\u2019s total earnings includes their base salary plus any annual stipends for\u00a0cellphone use, travel, special education responsibilities and \u201cextra duties.\u201d According to the district, a stipend for extra duties is awarded for “work beyond the duties” of one’s position.\u00a0The district declined to elaborate on the extra pay opportunities for all employees on the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n Drinks, for instance, received $2,000\u00a0for her work supporting elementary and secondary schools after the deputy superintendent left the district.<\/p>\n Christina Nguyen, a spokesperson for Austin ISD, also noted that extra duty stipends can be awarded for work that the district typically contracts out. Nguyen offered one example: Alison Ghilarducci, the executive director of communications and community engagement, received a $10,500 stipend for her work on communicating to families about the school closures process.<\/p>\n Ghilarducci and Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Pace will both be leaving the district on June 30, according to Nguyen. Francine Taylor, an executive director on the list, also no longer works for the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The largest extra duty stipend was $25,000 for Segura. Austin ISD said the district awarded the bonus for Segura’s work fulfilling\u00a0the tenets of the Texas Education Agency\u2019s Special Education Agreed Order, which required the district to address its major backlog of evaluation requests<\/a>.<\/p>\n To help address its projected $181 million budget deficit<\/a>, the district has proposed eliminating cellphone<\/a> and travel stipends and reducing special education and extra duty stipends.<\/p>\n The combined total pay for all top 30 employees was about $5.9 million, with the five highest-paid\u00a0employees accounting for more than a fifth of that figure. The total pay for all employees on this list was less than 1% of the district\u2019s projected payroll costs <\/a>for the 2025-26 fiscal year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n