Kenai Peninsula teachers and other school staff have a new employment contract. That’s after school board members Monday approved contracts with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s two largest employee unions.
The district and unions announced last month they’d reached tentative agreements. But those were subject to ratification by union members and approval by the school board. The contracts cover three years and apply retroactively to the last school year.
The vote caps a year-and-a-half of work between the district and unions’ bargaining teams that was punctuated by multi-million school district budget shortfalls, a rejected healthcare proposal and an impasse over salaries. But in the end, both union presidents say member support was overwhelming.
Rebecca Walker is president of the Kenai Peninsula Education Association, which represents about 500 certificated employees like teachers.
“It was a 99.5% approval rating with only one ‘no,’” Walker said. “So super proud of everybody there.”
Teachers’ new contract includes a $3,000 pay raise for the current and previous school years. That’s on top of a 3% raise for next school year, and another 1% bump if the State of Alaska increases per-student K-12 funding.
Other benefits include teachers and certificated staff can now also use up to three days of accrued sick leave for emergencies. The district will recognize more years of experience for new employees when determining their starting pay. And teachers on the lowest retirement tier will get more chances to set money aside for retirement.
Susanna Litwiniak is president of the union representing district support staff, like custodians and secretaries. She long voiced concerns about the negative impact of drawn-out contract negotiations on employee morale.
“I'm really excited to be starting the school year, having the KPESA membership overwhelmingly vote yes to ratify our tentative agreement,” she said. “That has been the result of countless hours of work and collaboration, and sometimes strife. In the end, we've reached an agreement that I think we can all be happy with.”
District support employees are getting a retroactive hourly raise of $1.25 for last school year, a two dollar hourly raise for the current school year and a one dollar hourly raise for next school year.
The support staff contract also lets employees accrue five more personal leave days per year, and use front-loaded sick leave time if they get sick shortly after being hired. Support staff union representatives are now expressly allowed to visit members at their work site during non-work hours. And the new contract ensures employees will not have to work through their lunch break.
Both contracts include a new employee healthcare plan that takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. The district is proposing to increase its share of employee healthcare costs from an 85-15 split to a 90-10 split. But, that change comes with higher costs for out-of-network care.
Multiple school board members celebrated contracts being ratified. Board President Jason Tauriainen is a former support staff employee who says he’s happy with the way the bargaining teams negotiated independently instead of jointly.
“I thought it allowed for a lot of flexibility to be able to do some unique things for support staff that they needed, and so I'm thankful that that happened to this negotiation, even though it was a long, painful process,” he said.
Tauriainen declared a conflict and did not vote on the teacher union contracts because his wife is a member of the union.
School board members also approved a new healthcare agreement on Monday for a separate union that represents the district administrators, like principals. Tauriainen said those employees wanted their new plan activated sooner.
