The Sitka School Board has approved a new three-year contract with the union representing the community’s teachers.
The deal includes “catch up” raises for the Sitka Education Association, which voluntarily held salaries flat during leaner times in the district.
Sitka’s teacher’s will see a raise of six-percent next year, and 4-percent each of the following two years, under the terms of their new contract.
The district budget for next year is far from settled. Interim superintendent Steve Bradshaw, who was the district’s lead negotiator, told the Sitka School Board on February 7 that teachers had done their part in recent years, and it was time to adjust their pay.
“Some people are going to question the wisdom of the superintendent and the board, when we start going through the budget process,” Bradshaw warned, “but the teachers in the school district deserve a good raise.”
Sitka teachers took no pay raise in 2017, and agreed to increases of only a few hundred dollars in the next two years. In 2022, after a months-long negotiating impasse, teachers agreed to an unusual two-year contract as a hedge against then-rampant inflation. The deal included a raise of only 2-percent in its second year.
Bradshaw said many of the changes to the contract were just in language, but there was one significant additional expense: The district was increasing its contribution to the teachers’ retirement plans by $500.
Through 2006 Alaska teachers received a state pension consisting of a large percentage of their former salaries, plus lifetime health benefits. Tier I retirement, as it was called, has long-since been replaced by a savings program called Tier III.
Bradshaw said that when the state moved away from Tier I, school districts lost an important incentive for new teachers.
“When they changed that 16 years ago, they took that (Tier I) away,” said Bradshaw. “On top of it, teachers in this state have lost ground (in salaries) and are now behind the state of Washington and Oregon. So you can’t offer them more money, and you can’t offer them a better retirement system. How are you going to recruit the best?”
The Alaska state Senate has just passed a bill that would partially restore Tier I benefits, but the bill’s major detractor is the one person who can single handedly block it. Gov. Dunleavy – unironically – is a former teacher and a Tier I retiree. In a press conference on February 7, he said new teachers nowadays would probably prefer cash.
“Full disclosure: I’m a Tier I retiree. I was a teacher. But younger folks appear to be less interested in that,” the governor said.
The Sitka School Board did not debate the issue. Board president Trisan Guevin said district staff had done yeoman service over the past few very difficult years. He suggested that even with a healthy raise, Sitka teachers were an exceptional value.
“Teachers, I think, inevitably are going to probably do a little bit more than they’re paid for, but we should strive as a district to compensate all of their labor,” Guevin said. “So for me, that’s really what it’s about: It’s about fair pay and benefits. And then the ability to retain and recruit the best and to provide the best education to our students, which really starts with teachers and our staff working in the buildings in the classroom.”
Under the terms of the deal, a starting teacher with a Bachelor’s degree will earn nearly $58,000. A teacher with a Masters degree and at least 15 years experience will earn just over $92,000.
The three-contract for Sitka’s teachers will be in effect through June of 2027. The school board unanimously approved the agreement.
