photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Representatives for the Lawrence school district and the district’s teachers’ union, the Lawrence Education Association, meet for contract negotiations at district offices on June 2, 2022.

Representatives for the Lawrence school district have proposed $862,616 for teacher raises for next school year, amounting to a less than 2% funding increase and well below the proposed increase from the teachers’ union.

The district’s negotiation team, which includes two Lawrence school board members, made the proposal to representatives of the Lawrence Education Association as part of a meeting Thursday evening at district offices. The $862,616 represents a 1.8% increase to the overall certified salary pool, and individual raises will vary.

School board member Kelly Jones, one of the board’s representatives in negotiations, said she had been working to provide a 2% overall increase for teachers, but that amount would have made a significant impact on what the district was able provide for wage increases for the district’s classified staff.

“We continue to work in both units to try to do better,” Kelly said.

The district’s proposal to the LEA comes on the heels of its proposal to the union representing the district’s classified staff. On Wednesday evening, representatives for the district and the Personnel Association of Lawrence-Communication Workers of America reached an agreement to increase funding for those workers’ wages by $806,336. The additional funding will increase classified base salary from $9.43 per hour to $9.70 per hour, a 2.863% increase, and represents a 4.95% increase to the overall classified salary pool.

The district has been negotiating with the LEA over the course of the school year. LEA Negotiations Co-Chair Josh Spradlin previously told the Journal-World that in early discussions, the union discussed an increase of $4.6 million over the next two years. He said the union’s salary proposal aims to keep a competitive wage with surrounding districts and keep up with inflation and the rising cost of living.

Speaking to those increasing costs, union negotiation team member Tom Barker said that if wages don’t keep up with inflation, some teachers would no longer be able to afford to teach in Lawrence. Barker noted that the cost of living adjustment for 2022 was 5.9%, which was a 40-year high, and that it’s currently estimated the increase for 2023 could be around 8.6%.

“I hate that people that want to be in this profession — especially those who want to maintain and live in Lawrence — are going to eventually be pushed out,” Barker said. “Not because they don’t want to teach, but simply because they can’t financially afford it.”

Under the union’s current salary schedule, someone with a bachelor’s degree receives a base salary of $41,758 per year, someone with a master’s degree a base salary of $44,408 per year, and someone with a doctorate a base salary of $51,008 per year. The salary schedule includes incremental pay levels between those three levels of education, based on semester hours earned toward a higher degree, as well as pay increases for additional years of service.

photo by: USD 497

The 2021-2022 salary schedule for the Lawrence Education Association includes levels of pay for different education levels and years of service.

Jones said she recognized the impact of inflation, but that the consideration of larger pay increases for teachers had to be done within the context of the district’s budget situation, including the future possibility of closing schools.

“I just want to make sure that I’m being totally transparent that we cannot get there without doing another deep cut,” Jones said. “There’s no other way at this juncture.”

The school board recently approved $6.4 million in budget cuts, forgoing any school closures and opting instead to cut programs and eliminate dozens of teacher and staff positions. Some of the reductions were made to free up funding for raises for both certified and classified staff. Specifically, the district has estimated that $3.62 million to $4.27 million is needed to address a budget shortfall, due mostly to enrollment declines, and the remaining funding can be used to help fund staff raises.

The proposal from Thursday also includes a $55,897 funding increase for administrators, representing a 1% increase to the salary pool. The district has previously estimated that it would cost $560,000 for each 1% raise to certified staff and $182,000 for each 1% raise to classified staff.

The next contract negotiation meeting between the district and LEA is scheduled for 3 p.m. on June 13, and union representatives said they would continue to discuss the salary proposal at that time.