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Community Impact compiled compensation for superintendents, teachers, and staff at 15 public school districts in the Austin area to compare trends across the metro as budgeting season wraps up for most districts.

According to 2025-26 school-year data from the Texas Education Agency, Lake Travis ISD had the highest-paid superintendent at $483,116, while Pflugerville ISD had the highest average teacher pay at $69,917.

Some context: The highest student enrollments for the 2025-26 school year were:

• Austin ISD

• Round Rock ISD

• Leander ISD

The lowest student enrollments were:

• Eanes ISD

• San Marcos ISD

• Dripping Springs ISD

Austin Fire official Tom Vocke was confirmed as the city's interim fire chief, effective Sept. 1 after the retirement of current Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker.

What's happening: Baker formally submitted his resignation notice Aug. 4 and is leaving his role at the end of August. City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced Baker was "unavailable and out of the office" starting Aug. 11, leading him to designate Vocke as acting fire chief.

City Council honored Baker with a distinguished service award and confirmed Vocke's appointment Aug. 27. He'll now lead Austin Fire on an interim basis until a successor is hired.

The search for Austin's next fire chief will be handled by Mosaic Public Partners, a firm the city has used for several recent high-level recruitments. Details including a timeline are still being finalized.

Austin Parks Foundation hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Aug. 28, revealing renovations to Rosedale’s Ramsey Neighborhood Park. New park improvements brought additional shade structures, updates to the playscape and safety surfacing. 

More details: The approximate $100,000 project added a shade structure over the swings, a fall surface and additional play equipment, Colin Wallis, Austin Parks Foundation CEO, explained. The ribbon cutting marked the third round of improvements that Austin Parks Foundation has made to Ramsey Neighborhood Park since Wallis joined the organization in 2012, he said.

Funding the project: Austin Parks Foundation contributed more than $91,000 towards the Ramsey Neighborhood Park improvements, according to the release. The foundation also acquired the playground equipment and shade structures and provided project management services.

Additionally, Austin Parks Foundation awarded Ramsey Neighborhood Park a $50,000 ACL Music Festival grant in 2013 for tennis court improvements, a limestone amphitheater and shade structure. 

• 4301 Rosedale Ave., Austin

Austin has the largest concentration of at-risk homes of any metro area outside California, with more than 100,000 properties and $49.2 billion in reconstruction cost value exposed to wildfire, according to Cotality's 2026 Wildfire Risk Report. 

Travis County remains under a burn ban as hot, dry conditions keep wildfire risk elevated heading into fall.

The ban: Travis County's burn ban has been in effect since Aug. 11, prohibiting outdoor burning countywide, and stays in place until Commissioners Court lifts it. 

Residents can sign up for free burn ban status text alerts by texting TCBURNBAN to 888777.

Why it matters: The county's wildfire preparedness push traces back to the Sept. 4, 2011 Steiner Ranch Fire, which this year marks its 15th anniversary. 

"We don't celebrate this as a celebration," said Robert Abbott of Lake Travis Fire Rescue, "but we do celebrate the fact that we have learned quite a bit from those events," pointing to major gains in staffing, training and technology since then, and current conditions eerily similar to those in 2011.

Check out six trending Austin-area stories from Aug. 24-27. 

1. Bad Habits Card Company now open in Georgetown

2. Tejas Meat Supply closes Round Rock restaurant, butcher shop

3. COTALAND Theme Park to host grand opening event in late September

4. Scheels holds ribbon cutting ahead of Aug. 29 opening

5. Amazon picks East Austin for multi-billion dollar robotics facility

6. Hutto, Williamson County poised for $674M Blue Origin facility