OMAHA — Omaha Public Schools and the Omaha Education Association have agreed on a new employment contract that will make substantial changes to teacher salaries.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the OPS board unanimously approved the agreement, which will cover the 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
The district’s base salary will rise nearly $7,200 over the next three years to compensate teachers for the heavy burden of work they are currently experiencing, union officials said.
“This is a significant shift to the salary schedule,” said Molly Davies, chief negotiator for the Omaha Education Association.
In the first year, the base teacher salary will increase by $1,000 to $45,000. Staff will also be receiving the last $4,500 stipend that district officials started last year, funded by federal COVID-19 aid.
In the second year of the contract, the base salary will increase by $5,500 to $50,500. In year three, compensation will rise by another $700 to $51,200.
Because the increases are for base salaries, teachers with more years of experience and education will see even higher increases throughout the contract because of the salary schedule.
“The people at the front of the salary schedule will get less of a raise than the people who are in the center of the salary schedule or at the bottom with graduate degrees,” Davies said.
The contract is also increasing pay for special-education teachers to compensate them for higher caseloads, Davies said. Special-education staff will receive an extra 7% above the regular salary schedule, increasing from 5% in the last agreement.
“It takes everyone to make our system go and high-quality teaching and learning is at the core of our mission,” said Superintendent Cheryl Logan. “This agreement includes significant investments in all our teaching professionals.”
Teachers are also getting more money for working outside of their regular duties.
Extra duty rates are increasing for staff who teach summer school, coach, instruct during off-duty hours, work evening activities and attend student assistance team meetings.
For the first time, staff are being paid for home visits. They will receive $30 a visit, with a cap of 10 visits per semester.
District and union officials did not provide an estimate of how much the new contract would cost.
Michelle Settlemyer, OEA president, said the union was able to negotiate more wins than losses, with the major win being an increase in pay.
The major loss, she said, was that teachers will not receive additional planning time.
“Even though plan time falls under managerial rights, the OEA hoped that the district would consider some of the proposals for improving elementary and early childhood plan time,” Settlemyer said. “Sadly, the district did not.”
The negotiations took place against the backdrop of the district’s that worsened because of the pandemic, resulting in larger class sizes, high caseloads, and more issues.
OPS officials first proposed the pay increases with a crucial condition: that the district would maintain current staffing levels for the duration of the agreement.
Davies said union officials told the district that was the wrong approach and would be bad for teachers and students.
“We rejected this language, because this is the district’s responsibility and it has nothing to do with the negotiations process,” Davies said. “They should continue to vigorously try to improve staffing.”
Settlemyer said her concern is whether the district will hire for positions that are currently open due to resignations and retirements. last summer.
“(If they don’t), class sizes will jump significantly, increasing the already-large workload of its teachers, thus reducing the quality of education students will receive,” Settlemyer said.
The union also proposed to the district that it could research how to get funds from the National Education Association to form a team of teachers to recruit candidates, but OPS officials have not responded yet.
“Overall, this is a good start for future work,” Settlemyer said. “In the losses, it provides a foundation to start grassroot organizing around those issues to bring about systemic change to those problems.”