Wenatchee School District and Teachers Agree On New Contract

The Wenatchee School District and Wenatchee Education Association released a joint press release announcing a new two year contract.

On Tuesday, August 21 members of the Wenatchee Education Association (WenEA) met at Wenatchee High School to ratify a new two year contract with the Wenatchee School District. 98% of the 367 members in attendance voted to accept the agreement. The WenEA represents over 500 non-administrative certificated educators in the Wenatchee School District.

The new two year contract provides for an 11-12% salary increase for the 2018-2019 school year and cost of living adjustment in 2019-2020.  To better support personalized learning, a priority of the District, the new agreement also provides for some reductions in caseloads for non-teaching staff such as therapists and psychologists, and adds new limits to daily class load for teachers.

“The WenEA is gratified with the new agreement,” said WenEA President  Kris Cameron. “We’ve worked hard to establish a collaborative relationship with the District, which has allowed us to work together in a productive way that benefits students, staff and our community,” she added.  “These raises help bring educators’ salaries closer to where they should be after years of stagnant wage growth against inflation, and comparable private-sector jobs.”

“The Wenatchee School District is happy to have reached an agreement that meets the needs of teaching staff and our students, said Lisa Turner, WSD’s executive director of human resources.

The WenEA bargaining team is grateful that the District committed all of the available state allocated salary funding to District educators. “The process was difficult but amicable. This agreement will allow Wenatchee to be competitive by offering a level of compensation that can help us attract and retain high quality educators to our community,” said Cameron.