SANTA MARIA ISD

What the Numbers Say About SANTA MARIA ISD

SANTA MARIA ISD is a small school district in Texas, serving 544 students at an estimated per-pupil spending of $29,193. Estimated average teacher salary — derived from instructional expenditure variable Z33 divided by teacher FTE — is $122,316, placing the district in the high-investment tier of NCES F-33 respondents. NCES LEAID 4839330 references the FY2022 Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Finance Survey.

Relative to the Texas statewide average of $77,352, teacher pay in SANTA MARIA ISD runs meaningfully above the state benchmark — a 58.1% gap, and above the national instructional-salary estimate of $82,292 (48.6% differential). Among enrolling districts in Texas, it pays more than 98% of them. Licensing reciprocity, collective bargaining strength, and state aid formulas all contribute to where a district lands in these tiers.

On the budget side, SANTA MARIA ISD reports $15.9M in total expenditure against $13.8M in revenue, with instructional salaries accounting for 28% of spending — a compensation-to-budget ratio that signals how much of each tax dollar reaches classroom educators. Regular-program teacher salary outlay is $2.2M, special-education teacher pay is $0.3M. These figures are district-level aggregates from F-33, not individual contracts — step-and-column schedules, stipends, and collectively-bargained differentials sit underneath these totals.