photo by: Journal-World

Lawrence Public Schools district offices pictured in April 2021.

The Lawrence school district now has an official contract with a labor union representing the district’s classified staff.

The school board on Monday ratified a labor union contract with PAL-CWA, which represents the districts’ paraeducators, custodians, office staff and other employees. The ratification establishes the first contract between the district and the labor union.

Along with a slight increase in pay, the contract includes language already listed in the district’s employee handbook for classified staff. Some significant changes include the creation of a joint labor-management committee, which aims to improve communication between the staff and district leaders, and the addition of professional development for the classified staff.

Superintendent Anthony Lewis told the Journal-World after the meeting on Monday that he was happy to have an official agreement with the union. He said he was also happy the union, which originally only represented paraeducators, agreed to expand to all classified staff to make sure they were all represented in the contract.

But Lewis also acknowledged work is not done in improving the working conditions for the union’s members.

“I’m pleased they are all included in that and now the real work happens in terms of holding me accountable and this board accountable to make sure we are addressing — in a collaborative way — the needs they have indicated,” Lewis said.

The board approved the agreement as part of its consent agenda, which allows the board to approve several items at once without discussion. Their action on the agreement made the contract official, as the union members gave their approval last week.

As the Journal-World previously reported, the district and the union reached an agreement with a 0.24% pay increase, which is roughly $48,000 of overall compensation for the union’s members. The teachers union and the district’s administrative staff also received compensation increases at the same rate.

Wage increases were a major issue for PAL-CWA, with members telling the school board they are paid less than a living wage.

Despite the slight increase, G.R. Gordon Ross, a board member on the negotiations committee, said the district plans to reenter negotiations with the union later this fall to discuss further wage increases for the current school year.

Meanwhile, Hannah Allison-Natale, the union’s interim president, previously told the Journal-World she was proud to have agreed to the union’s first contract, but the union still believed the district needed to work harder to provide better wages for classified staff.

“We will continue to fight until all staff make a living wage and our schools are fully staffed so that we can provide the best education for our children,” Allison-Natale said.

In other business, the board heard a report on the district’s work toward the safe and supportive schools section of the district’s strategic plan. That section of the strategic plan specifically calls for the district to work on encouraging positive behaviors among students and establish a connection for all students to their schools and peers.

Part of the report focused on the district’s use of restorative practices, which is an alternative approach to punitive measures in response to behavioral issues and conflicts in schools. Rick Henry, the district’s director of secondary schools, said it includes peacefully resolving conflicts by allowing those who are involved to listen to each other’s side of the issue, aiming to repair harm and restore positive relationships.

Cynthia Johnson, the district’s executive director of inclusion, engagement and belonging, said the district is working with the Oakland, Calif., school district, which is considered the leader on restorative practices in schools.

Additionally, the board was shown initial data in the district showing where behavioral issues occur in the district and the district’s use of restorative practices to respond to those incidents. Zach Conrad, the district’s executive director for data and technology, said the district had just begun tracking the data this year and much of it cannot yet be contextualized.

But Lewis told the board that he hopes the data in the future will show that restorative practices are helping decrease behavioral issues among students and the amount of punishments — specifically suspensions — handed down to those students. He said he also hopes it will lead to improving district equity by decreasing behavioral issues among students of color and the suspensions they face for those issues.

“You should see a reduction in pretty much all suspensions, but definitely in those discrepancies between races,” he said.