Wichita teachers ratify new union contract after district adds one-time bonus
Wichita Public Schools teachers voted to accept a new union contract proposal from USD 259 after the district offered a one-time bonus to those who weren’t otherwise going to receive a raise during the pandemic.
In all, 64.5% of district teachers voted. Of those voting, 67.3% chose to approve the new collective bargaining agreement. All teachers are eligible to vote on the union contract, regardless of whether or not they are union members.
Last month, teachers voted overwhelmingly to reject the tentative agreement between the United Teachers of Wichita and the district over concerns about lack of salary increases, teacher workload and building safety in the pandemic.
Union staff recommended teachers vote against the prior contract, but they suggested the new offer was worth approving.
“While not the agreement teachers want and deserve, in today’s climate the team believes they received every dollar the BOE was going to give,” union staff wrote on Facebook announcing the new tentative agreement.
A main reason teachers rejected the last offer, union staff said, was that the Wichita Board of Education did not offer salary increases to about a third of teachers. Those teacher would not have received a cost of living change, which the union typically expects to see every year, said UTW vice president Gabriel Costilla.
The new contract ensures any teacher not receiving a salary increase will instead get a one-time bonus of 1.2%. The bonus check will be paid in March before spring break.
The BOE is set to approve the contract at its meeting next Monday. Once that happens, the district can begin to process new checks for the back pay it owes teachers, said Kimberly Howard, UTW president.
The previous contract expired at the end of July. It remained in place until a new agreement was ratified. Negotiations didn’t begin until August after a delay.
In October, the union and the district reached an impasse that required a federal mediator to help work out compensation.
On top of salary concerns, teachers expressed worry about a lack of respect as many take on an extra workload during the pandemic and remote schooling. COVID-19 safety in school buildings is also a top priority for many.
“There’s a lot of frustration with the work load that comes along with the pandemic,” Howard said. “The problem is a lot of those things aren’t in our contract.”
Howard said it’s not easy to translate other issues into a contract proposal or place a dollar amount on them.
On top of work load, some teachers who were teaching remotely but going to their classrooms in person wanted the option to work from home. By now, most teachers are working remotely, Howard said. The district moved to the more blanket policy after a new health order from Sedgwick County recommended that everyone who is able to work from home do so.
If teachers would have rejected the tentative agreement for a second time, the district could have imposed a unilateral contract, said Howard. That means USD 259 could choose a new bargaining agreement and remove parts of the contract that the union worked to keep.
With that in mind, Howard said there are too many other important sections of the contract that aren’t worth losing. After receiving the one-time bonus offer from the district, the negotiating team didn’t feel it would get a better proposal.
“I think at least this time, everybody got something,” Howard said. “It may not be what we think teachers deserve, but it’s something.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
