TACOMA — Educators in Tacoma overwhelmingly approved a new contract Friday that includes an average 14.4 percent raise for teachers in Tacoma Public Schools.
A video from a general membership meeting of the Tacoma Education Association, which represents educators there, showed teachers cheering after a vote in which 99 percent of members in attendance approved the contract deal, which the union and school district had announced late Thursday.
Effective Sept. 1, the tentative agreement would raise the starting pay for teachers in Tacoma from $45,500 to $54,308. The maximum salary would top $108,520, up from about $90,900 currently.
After a weeklong strike, teachers in Tacoma reached a tentative contract agreement with Tacoma Public Schools, the union and district announced Thursday evening.
Teachers voted on the deal Friday morning.
A joint statement from the school district and union before the vote said the new contract “will allow us to recruit and retain strong professionals.”
The statement emphasized concerns about funding from the state Legislature, saying the School Board, superintendent and union had been “placed in a difficult situation.”
“Without changes in state funding, Tacoma Public Schools will face painful cuts,” the statement said.
Striking teachers in the state’s fourth-biggest school district had sought salary increases reflective of increases in other districts across the state. The conflict over teacher pay raises has raged across most of the almost 300 school districts, with many administrations agreeing to double-digit pay hikes after state lawmakers injected their budgets with about $1 billion this year to comply with a long-running school finance case known as McCleary.
“I’m just excited to be back with my students on Monday,” Sara Ketelsen, a math teacher at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, said following the announcement that the tentative agreement had been reached.
