Salina Public Schools, teachers settle contract negotiations ahead of 2023-24 school year

Kendrick Calfee, Salina Journal
·2 min read
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Linn Exline discusses career and technical education opportunities at a Salina Public Schools Chat April 3.
Linn Exline discusses career and technical education opportunities at a Salina Public Schools Chat April 3.

The Salina Public Schools Board of Education and National Education Association - Salina met for their second and final round of contract negotiations this week for the 2023-24 school year.

From the negotiations process, about a dozen changes were tentatively agreed upon by both the district and NEA-Salina, which now await official approval from both sides.

The USD 305 Board of Education will vote on the measures at a future meeting. Here are the changes that teachers and the district have settled on ahead of 2023-24.

District, teachers agree on changes to contracts ahead of 2023-24

Regarding salary and benefits:

Unofficial changes to contracts include a new base pay, increasing $1,500 from last year's base pay of $42,000, along with step movement as allowed under salary schedules.

If approved by a Board vote, teachers will see additional days of leave, an increase in employer health insurance contribution and modified designations for what qualifies under PTO. Here is a list of the unofficial changes regarding salaries and benefits.

  • Added $1,500 to the base salary

  • Agreed to pay step and movement

  • Added school counselors to the group of staff who receive special salary provisions

  • Added two days of leave designated for bereavement

  • Added five days of parental leave

  • Added $20 per month to the employer health insurance contribution

  • Excluded funerals from the blackout day provision for use of PTO

Other changes

Other changes include adding procedures for classroom discipline, adding flexibility to provisions for staff working from home, and clarifications to existing provisions.

The negotiations also resulted in NEA-Salina and USD 305 forming a joint committee to look at lunch schedules for teachers during the school year. Here's a list of all other unofficial changes the two parties settled on.

  • Added procedures to better facilitate the classroom discipline process

  • Removed the sunset provision on the ability to work from home on teacher workdays

  • Added procedures to allow NEA-Salina more efficient access to the bargaining unit information

  • Made clarifications to the longevity provisions

  • Created a joint committee to study and make recommendations on lunch schedules for teachers during the 2023-24 school year

What's the next step in approving these changes?

Now that teams have settled, next steps will be teacher ratification and a vote from the full Board of Education.

The Board vote will happen at a future Board of Education meeting, date to be determined, as the contracts will need to be finalized before the start of the school year.

This is a developing story as negotiations await official approval. The Salina Journal will provide updates as they come available.

Kendrick Calfee has been a reporter with the Salina Journal since 2022, primarily covering county government and education. You can reach him at kcalfee@gannett.com or on Twitter @calfee_kc.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Here are the contract changes USD 305, teachers agreed to for 2023-24