photo by: Journal-World

The Lawrence school district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.

Lawrence school district leaders will soon continue their discussions over teacher and staff contracts, including pay raises and working conditions.

As part of its meeting Monday, the Lawrence school board is scheduled to meet in executive session to discuss contract negotiations with staff unions. The district is in the midst of negotiating contracts with two employee unions, one representing teachers and other certified staff and the other representing classified staff.

The school district began contract negotiations on Feb. 21 with the Personnel Association of Lawrence-Communication Workers of America, Local 6400, which represents the district’s paraeducators, custodians, food service workers, office staff and other classified employees. PAL-CWA has proposed that all classified staff make at least $15 per hour.

Apart from pay, PAL-CWA President Hannah Allison-Natale said some other big issues are the inclusion of breaks in the contract, pay for snow days, and pay for additional duties. Allison-Natale said many staff members have taken on additional duties as a result of budget cuts. The current contract expires June 30, and Allison-Natale has previously said the union expects the district to make a counter-offer to its wage proposal at its next bargaining session, scheduled for June 1.

The district has also been negotiating with the union for certified staff, the Lawrence Education Association. LEA Negotiations Co-Chair Josh Spradlin said the negotiations team has been meeting one to two times a month over the course of the school year. Spradlin 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. He said in early discussions, the union discussed an increase of $4.6 million over the next two years.

Spradlin also said the union anticipates the district’s wage offer could potentially come at its next bargaining session, scheduled for June 2. Apart from pay, he said the union has also been negotiating items such as elementary planning time, library media specialists, leave time buy-back and high school schedules, among other issues.

The Lawrence school board recently approved $6.4 million in budget cuts, including some reductions meant to free up funding for raises for both certified and classified staff. Specifically, the district estimates $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 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.

In other business, the board will:

• Receive an update on the staffing changes resulting from budget reductions, as well as multigrade classrooms. The budget anticipated that dozens of teaching positions would be eliminated due to enrollment declines as well as the creation of multigrade classrooms. Multigrade classrooms will be put in place in almost all of the district’s 13 elementary schools, and will allow more possibilities for combining classrooms with low numbers of students, thereby resulting in fewer classes overall and the need for fewer teachers, as the Journal-World previously reported. The board’s agenda did not include the report or additional information as of Saturday.

•Receive an update on enrollment requests for the Montessori program at New York Elementary school and “additional aide costs.” The board recently approved a changeover at New York from a regular teaching method to a Montessori method, and the transition will begin next school year, as the Journal-World previously reported. The district has previously informed the board that costs for the program will include training for teachers and classroom materials. The board’s agenda did not include the report or additional information as of Saturday.