Wichita Public Schools and the local teachers union have reached a stalemate in their negotiations for a new teacher contract.
During contract talks, both the union and the Wichita Board of Education appoint teams to oversee the negotiations. The school board’s team is headed by the district’s legal department.
United Teachers of Wichita says the school board’s negotiating team declared an impasse after the two parties could not reach an agreement on key issues like pay, student behavior and teacher planning time.
That means a federal mediator will now step in to broker the contract talks, which began in April.
Katie Warren is president of the teachers union. She said the union would have preferred to continue regular negotiations.
“We're committed to finding solutions through negotiations,” she said, “and we think that looking at solutions and talking together is the best path forward for everybody. So, we're disappointed that they've moved to (an) impasse.”
Warren also said the announcement to declare an impasse came as a surprise. She and other union representatives were notified by email last week shortly after a recent negotiating session, which was attended by dozens of teachers.
A spokesperson for Wichita Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Warren acknowledged the district faces a “difficult budget year,” with an anticipated dip in student enrollment and rising healthcare costs. Still, she said the district can show it prioritizes teachers in its budget by offering a more significant raise.
“Our educators continue to face increasing workload, growing student needs, staffing shortages, and a rising cost of living,” she said. “The raise that's been offered does not reflect the work being asked of them or the challenges that they face in today's classroom.”
Under the current contract, starting pay for a new teacher in the district is $51,626 per year.
Teachers can get more pay with each year of experience and for furthering their education. A teacher with a master’s degree and five years of experience would earn $63,037 per year, for example.
Beyond pay, Warren said she feels the district has not ceded ground on other points that don’t require significant amounts of new spending, like addressing student behavior and giving teachers more planning time.
“If meaningful salary improvements are not possible, we feel they should be working with us on these other no-cost items,” she said.
Any contract negotiated between the school board and the union would have to be ratified by teachers and school board members.
But if the board and the union remain at an impasse by the start of the fall semester, last school year’s contract could stay in effect until the two parties can reach a resolution.
In that scenario, Warren said teachers “won't get their credits for their experience” nor a pay increase based on their years of experience in education.
If federal mediation fails to produce a resolution, negotiations could then potentially move into a formal fact-finding process.
After that process, if the school board and the union still cannot reach an agreement, the board could ultimately implement a unilateral, non-negotiated contract.
In a Facebook post, school board member and retired teacher Amy Jensen said she hopes to see both parties continue working in good faith to find areas of mutual agreement that “support our educators, our district and ultimately our students.”
“Having spent many years at the bargaining table myself, including serving as a lead negotiator, I know that reaching (an) impasse does not mean negotiations are over,” she said. “In fact, some of the most productive conversations can occur after this stage of the process.”
Wichita Public Schools is the largest school district in Kansas, with about 4,000 teachers and 45,000 students.
