Portland Schools educational technicians have reached a tentative agreement with the district that includes a 12 percent increase in starting pay for most educational technicians, after months of prolonged negotiations over salaries.

The proposed agreement comes more than a month after education technicians began the school year without a collective agreement.

The school board will vote to ratify the contract at its meeting Tuesday evening. Superintendent Ryan Scallon said in an interview Thursday that the union had approved the contract and was optimistic the board would approve it.

The previous three-year contract, which expired at the end of August, took more than a year to negotiate for the 2021-2022 school year. Education technicians have worked all year without a contract, a situation they say has led to understaffing and unsafe working conditions.

When discussions over this year’s contract stalled, more than 40 people protested at a school board meeting in early September and union members testified that the previous contract’s starting salary was unsustainable .

NEGOTIATIONS

The district employs three levels of technicians: Ed Tech Is require a high school diploma or GED, Ed Tech IIs need 60 postsecondary credits, and Ed Tech IIIs need at least 90 college credits, and most have a bachelor’s degree. Scallon said about 90 percent of the technicians employed by the district fall into that third group. They are all paid on a scale that increases with time spent in the position.

If the contract is approved, all of their salary scales will increase over the next three years.

Ed Tech IIIs would now earn between $21.28 and $31.06 this year, depending on experience, under the proposed deal, an increase of $2.34 from the previous starting salary of 18, $94. By the 2026-2027 school year, that range would increase from $22.14 to $33.79.

The starting salary for Ed Tech Is would increase from $16.20 to $17.85 this year, then to $18.57 by 2026. And the Ed Tech II salary includes a step from $17.27 to $20.00 this year, then to $20.81 by 2026.

“I think we’ve come to an agreement that really recognizes the value that our education technicians bring to the district and we’re excited that the scale we can offer now is really competitive,” Scallon said. “This will make our educational technicians some of the highest paid in the region, while still being able to operate within a budget that we have planned.”

Scallon said the union and district quickly reached agreement on the working condition component of the contract, but finalizing salary and benefits took longer. He said delayed contracts can sometimes appear in the public eye as a conflict, but in this case the issue was simply the need for more time to complete negotiations.

“The little extra time it took resulted in a contract that really accomplished the goals that everyone wanted, which was to ensure that our education technicians are compensated in a way that recognizes the value they bring to the district,” he said. said, thanking union President Jennifer Cooper and other members of the bargaining team for their investment in the negotiations.

Cooper said in an email Monday before the union vote that she was optimistic about the deal.

“I believe our members will be pleased with the salary and benefit increases we were able to secure,” she wrote.

Cooper did not respond Friday to requests to discuss details of the negotiation.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Because the contract comes more than a month after the start of the school year, the pay scale adjustments will be applied retroactively and educational technicians will receive reimbursement once the contract is approved, Scallon said.

In addition to appeasing current employees, the district hopes the new contract will help solve the educational technology shortage. The district budgeted for 226 educational technology positions this year, but Scallon said only 206 are currently filled. He said factors other than wages are contributing to the shortage, but now competitive wages should make a difference.

“Educational technicians are really important in our schools and so we work very hard to fill them. When a school lacks educational technology, they work very hard to make sure they cover it, they have people going around, providing support in a variety of ways,” Scallon said. “None of this is perfect or ideal, but schools are quite creative in how they support. We hope this will help alleviate some of that pressure.

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