photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

Representatives of the Lawrence school district, seated at right, and the Personnel Association of Lawrence-Communication Workers of America, the union representing the district's classified staff, meet for contract negotiations on June 8, 2023. PAL-CWA members and supporters also attended the meeting.

Story updated at 8:54 p.m. Thursday, June 8:

The Lawrence school district and its classified staff union have agreed to provide $2.58 million toward wage increases for district staff, which provides a minimum raise of $2.12 per hour for staff but falls short of the union’s proposal to commit $7 million toward raises.

Representatives for the Lawrence school district and the Personnel Association of Lawrence-Communication Workers of America, the union representing classified staff such as paraeducators, food service workers and custodians, met for contract negotiations at district offices on Wednesday. David Cunningham, an attorney with the Kansas Association of School Boards representing the district in negotiations, said that while the proposal did not meet the union’s goal of $7 million, the district believed it represented a significant improvement in compensation.

“I don’t know if you had a legitimate expectation of that; we know it was certainly a desire,” Cunningham said. “We can’t meet that, we can’t meet it halfway. So we are able to make, what I think and what this team thinks and the board believes, is a significant improvement.”

Cunningham said the proposal was the district’s offer, saying that the district did not start low so that it could move higher. He said there was no additional money beyond that amount that could be allocated for staff salaries.

Assistant Director of Human Resources Megan Epperson said the $2.58 million includes $2.205 million for base wage increases, approximately $234,394 to implement a new salary schedule and $142,234 for raises for increased years of service. Epperson said that while the increase didn’t raise all staff wages to above $15 — the goal stated by the union a couple of years ago — it represents an increase of $2.12 per hour on the base wage, plus the other additions from the salary schedule changes. She said that taken together, the increases would raise the starting wage from $9.70 per hour to $13.03 per hour.

“The board and PAL both recognize the interest in moving the staff who are the lowest paid to a higher wage amount,” Epperson said.

Epperson provided a few examples of how the increases would affect certain positions. For paraeducators, pay would increase from $11.35 per hour to $13.92 per hour, or an increase of $2.57 per hour. For food service assistants, pay would increase from $10.91 per hour to $13.47 per hour, or an increase of $2.56 per hour. For custodians, pay would increase from $12.27 per hour to $14.39 per hour, or an increase of $2.12 per hour.

Before going into caucus, PAL-CWA President Hannah Allison-Natale said she recognized the effort to improve wages.

“I think you all did the work to try to figure out how to get the most money into people’s pockets, which I think is really important,” Allison-Natale said.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

Members of the Personnel Association of Lawrence-Communication Workers of America, the union representing the Lawrence school district’s classified staff, and supporters rally outside district offices ahead of a contract negotiations meeting on June 8, 2023.

PAL-CWA has been pushing the district to increase all classified staff pay to a living wage for the past couple of years. The living wage in Lawrence is $16.04 an hour for a single adult with no children, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator. The union has stated there are approximately 410 classified employees earning less than $16 per hour, with 320 of those employees making between $9.70 and $14.00 per hour.

Following the caucus, Tatyana Younger, co-vice president of PAL-CWA and a paraeducator in the district, said that the bargaining unit had agreed to the district’s wage proposal. However, Younger emphasized there is still more work to do to bring all district staff to a living wage.

“Thank you for all the hard work; we know that this has taken so long,” Younger said. “And we also know that this isn’t the end of this battle, because there is so much left to do. And this is a wonderful first step; I’m so excited that we got here.”

PAL-CWA previously proposed $7 million in raises for its staff, which would give everyone a raise of $6.34 an hour and get all workers up to a living wage. A committee comprising both district and PAL-CWA representatives has been working to develop the new salary schedule for the district’s classified staff for the past six months. Allison-Natale said the new schedule improves pay for some of the lowest-paid workers and makes it easier to raise wages from year to year.

The proposed contract, which includes the wage proposal as well as other changes in contract language, will next go to the classified staff and the Lawrence school board for consideration.

A sense of accomplishment was evident at the end of the meeting, with some union members hugging each other. The $2.58 million for wage increases for district staff represents a more than three-fold increase compared to last year, when only $806,336 in additional funding was allocated toward the staff salary pool.

Board member Kelly Jones, who along with Board Vice President Paula Vann represents the board in negotiations, said she saw the changes in the salary schedule as a significant accomplishment.

“I just want to say how grateful I am that you all showed up to the table to do that,” Jones said. “I feel like it’s going to be a much better situation for people that work for the district.”

The district has also been negotiating with the union representing the district’s teachers and other certified staff. Last week, the Lawrence school board agreed to a proposal that would provide about $3 million to increase teacher pay — amounting to an average raise of about $3,000. However, that amount could potentially increase, as the teachers union has proposed another $500,000 be added to that amount.

Negotiations with both unions come amid increases in state funding and district budget reductions made specifically to free up money for employee wages. Cynde Frick, the district’s executive director of finance, recently reported that the district anticipates receiving an additional $4 million from the court-imposed cost-of-living adjustments to state funding for public education.

In addition, the pay increases would be funded through recent budget reductions at the district level, including teacher cuts and school closures. The school board approved reducing middle and high school staff by 50 teachers, which is expected to save the district $3.25 million annually. The board also voted to close Broken Arrow and Pinckney elementary schools. The district has estimated that closing one elementary school would save $300,000 to $400,000 annually, meaning that the two closures are estimated to save the district $600,000 to $800,000 annually. Taken together, the two changes save the district between $3.55 million and $4.05 million annually. The district identified providing competitive pay for both certified and classified staff as one of three priorities for the district’s budget.