School board ratifies teachers contract

The La Conner school district directors unanimously approved the salary schedule and tentative contract for its teachers at its Monday night study session. Voting yes to Director Lynette Cram’s motion were Chair Kate Szurek, Janie Beasley, Brad Smith and John Thulen.

The agreement make’s the district’s minimum salary $50,633, a 27 percent increase. Teachers at the top of the scale, with 16 years and advanced degrees will earn $106,146. In year two those salaries increase to $51,595 and $108,157.

La Conner teachers were briefly the second highest paid in the county, after Sedro-Woolley, when a settlement was reached Aug. 28. In the last two weeks the remaining five school districts in Skagit County have reached agreements with their teachers. The La Conner school board was the last to ratify its contract.

The La Conner Education Association, the teachers’ union, negotiated the highest percentage increase in the county, 27 percent on average, and brought new teacher salaries within $3,630 of Mount Vernon’s, the county’s highest paid teachers. La Conner starting teachers will earn only $204 less than Concrete’s and $1,367 less than Anacortes, the two districts above them.

Other district salary increases ranged from 13 percent in Anacortes to 17.7 percent in Sedro-Woolley.

The administration and teacher representatives have agreed to “regular contract collaboration meetings,” Superintendent Whitney Meissner told the Board Monday. Reduction in school district funds from a three percent drop in enrollment or “levy problems” would parties discussing those impacts on the agreement.

The contract runs through August 31, 2020.

All 294 pubic school districts in Washington have to reach contract agreements with their teachers, a result of the state legislature following the supreme court’s mandate settling the McCleary decision, which found that schools were not adequately funded and teachers not adequately paid. The legislature approved some two billion dollars of new funding for teacher salaries this spring.

The La Conner school district has some 560 students. The La Conner Education Association represents over 49 certificated teachers.