Washington teachers voluntarily settle below state minimum raise

WASHINGTON — When State Supplemental Aid passing the state legislature at 2.5%, school districts were worried. Under Iowa law, teacher associations can take negotiations for annual raises to arbitration if they fail to reach an agreement with their employers, which settles at either 3% or the consumer price index, currently around 8%, whichever is lower.

Certified staff at Washington schools, however, went even lower, settling at 2.87% and declining to go to arbitration.

“They actually came in a little lower than that, they came in at 2.8, and this is where we said we can be,” Superintendent Willie Stone said. “They could have very easily said, ‘Mr. Stone, we just want to go to arbitration,’ and then had gotten 3% … I can’t speak enough to how great our staff is to understand and work with where we’re at in our budget.”

Washington Education Association President Dana Bangs — kindergarten teacher who leads the collective bargaining group — said the certified staff felt their decision was a must.

“The state has been underfunding education for years, and districts were only given 2.5 from the state, so the district would’ve had to come up with the difference between 2.5 and 3%, and that is not the district’s job,” she said. “We felt it was in the best interests of the students and the district to take only what was given to the district, and to be able to fund all the programs and staff needed for the students.”

Bangs said the decision was not necessarily difficult to make.

“After so many years of underfunding, we have just accepted that it is what it is,” she said. “You can’t come up with money that the state isn’t giving the district … We try as an association to really educate the staff on where we are financially and what we have been offered, why we have chosen to settle where we settled, and everybody understands why we did what we did.”

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating, however. Bangs said she and other educators remained discontented with the state.

“Our discussion that we’ve had is the frustration with and the unbelievable-ness of the state … that is putting the district in this situation,” she said. “How can the state continue to underfund us and expect districts to be working? The big frustration is they have the money to fund us, and they’re choosing not to.”

While the settlement was amicable this year, Bangs said she didn’t know how long schools could hold out under current trends.

“Right now we’re taking it year by year,” she said. “There are lots of districts that are very much in financial trouble because of the state. We all are wondering the same thing. How are we going to work? Is staff going to have to be cut? What is our settlement going to look like next year? We just don’t know.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com