A pay increase is coming to nurses at the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District.

Edinburg CISD Superintendent Dr. Mario Salinas says it affects most of their nurses.

"Almost all nurses got something, some as much as $4,500 per year more." said Dr. Salinas. “Many of them 4,000, and between that amount and to 1,000 and 500, depending on the number of years of experience."

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Dr. Salinas said the raise is an effort to recruit more nurses and encourage newer nurses to stay with the district by offering a more competitive salary.

"It was kind of hard holding onto nurses, especially when some of our nurses that are specialized in the ER or med-surg get these nice, attractive offers to travel out of our area and they do get paid more,” said Diana Davila, Edinburg CISD Director of Health Services.

Dr. Salinas says the starting salary for a nurse at Edinburg CISD was initially $49,000 a year, but now it's $54,000.

Davila hopes more nurses will now stick around for the long haul.

Dr. Salinas recognizes the important role nurses play during COVID, and says he's happy to see them get paid what they deserve.