Bus drivers, classroom aides, custodians and other classified employees are seeking a substantial pay increase to address rising cost of living as Salem-Keizer School District leaders say the district will see a budget shortfall next year.

The district’s classified employee union, the Association of Salem-Keizer Education Support Professionals, has asked for a 6% cost of living raise this year and 12% next year for the 2,800 workers it represents, in addition to moving employees to higher ranges on the existing wage scale. Those moves would effectively raise pay another 10% for current employees, said union president Edie Buchanan.

Buchanan said many of the district’s classified employees work two jobs and rely on public assistance to make ends meet.

District leaders on Sept. 21 said they were willing to offer a 4% raise each year, as well as targeted increases for bus drivers, who currently start at $24.25 an hour. The district offer would cost $17.5 million over two years.

“In Salem-Keizer, we value our employees. They deserve competitive and respectful wages,” Superintendent Andrea Castañeda said in a statement accompanying the offer.

But Buchanan said that’s not enough given the work her members do. Classroom aides, one of the largest groups of classified employees, currently start at $17.28 an hour. Many work 6.5 hours per day, meaning a beginning employee would earn about $21,000 over the course of the school year.

“We were disappointed,” Buchanan said of the offer. “We appreciated the movement, however 4% for our folks… is just not equitable.”

Bargaining continues this week, with a meeting scheduled Wednesday evening. 

Buchanan, like teacher union leaders, pointed to substantial raises district administrators received last year, at a cost of $2 million, as an example of district priorities being backward. 

Castañeda has defended those raises as a one-time step to bring principal and administrator pay in line with market wages, and said the cost would not be enough to make a significant dent in the amount employees are seeking.

Buchanan said health insurance premiums for employees are rising this year, and while the district has offered to cover some of the increase, workers would still pay an additional $80 to 100 per month.

Because of that increase, the pay raises being offered mean most classified employees would net less than $100 per month more pay with the district’s proposal, she said. Some classroom aides would take home only an extra $2 per month.

“That doesn’t even buy a latte,” she said.

District and union leaders have spent more than six months at the bargaining table seeking a two-year contract during a tense year for labor negotiations in school districts across Oregon and Washington.

Salem-Keizer leaders are in negotiation with both the teacher and classified unions for two-year contracts.

The district, like many across the U.S., hired substantially more employees over the past two years to address the academic and social needs of students whose education was disrupted by the Covid pandemic and move to online school. That’s increased expenses, which are outpacing revenues.

Now, with enrollment declining and federal Covid relief funding running out next year, leaders say it’s time to tighten the belt.

Castañeda has projected a district budget deficit of at least $38 million in 2024. That deficit is based on the district’s most recent offers to its two employee unions and would increase if further pay increases are bargained.

Teachers protest move to mediation

Castañeda last week asked a state mediator to step in with teacher union negotiations, saying the two sides are too far apart on pay to come to an agreement. Teachers are seeking a 13.5% raise in the first year and 12.5% raise in the second year, while the district has proposed a 3.5% increase each year.

Mediation sessions would be closed to the public, something union president Tyler Scialo-Lakeberg objected to as an anti-transparency move.

To date, bargaining sessions have been open, meaning any members of the public can observe in person.

“Our request for mediation is not driven by a desire to change settings or the desire to move behind closed doors. It is about our need for impartial and professional help to close the $54 million gap that sits between our proposal and the association’s proposal,” district spokesman Aaron Harada said in an email to Salem Reporte. “Mediators have tools, training, and process supports that are not at our current disposal. Mediation is a state-supported and managed process for public sector bargaining.”

Harada said mediation has not been scheduled yet.

Several hundred teachers and supporters rallied Monday afternoon outside the district office in protest of the move to mediation and the district’s latest pay offer.

Many carried signs addressing other issues union leaders have raised during negotiations, including caps on caseloads and class sizes. Scialo-Lakeberg spoke to the crowd Monday through a megaphone outside the front door of the school district office.

“They thought mediation would close us down. We need to send a strong message: this has only inflamed the fire,” she said.

Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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