Educators held an “art build” for a potential strike at the Carpenters union’s training center in St. Paul.
St. Paul educators voted this week to ratify new union contracts that will improve their pay and benefits while upholding the in-classroom supports they won in previous bargaining cycles.
“Educators often bargain for things that are outside of those bread-and-butter issues,” St. Paul Federation of Educators President Leah VanDassor said. “This time around, we’re really struggling to keep our educators in St. Paul, so we did push a lot harder on pay and benefits than in the past. And we did get some classroom wins as well.”
The union said its members voted “overwhelmingly” to ratify contracts covering 3,689 employees in the St. Paul Public Schools. Three bargaining units – licensed teachers, educational assistants, and school and community professionals – negotiated jointly with the district, and each agreed to two-year contracts that will expire after the 2024-25 school year.
Educational assistants, the lowest-paid SPFE members, will see the steepest wage increases under the new contracts, with an hourly hike of $2.25 retroactive to Jan. 1 and an across-the-board increase of 4% in 2024-25. That amounts to a 16% pay increase for newly hired workers.
Other union members will see salary increases of $3,084 or $3,500 this school year retroactive to Jan. 1, and a 4% pay increase next year. The contracts also provide longevity bonuses and increased holiday pay to some educators, and the district will increase its contribution to union members’ health plans.
“With historic funding from the state, now was the time to be bold for our members and our students – and we were,” VanDassor said. “I’m proud of the improvements we won for our schools with this contract and the past progress we were able to expand upon.”
Prior to reaching a tentative agreement with SPFE on March 5, school administrators had claimed that the student-centered commitments won by the union in previous bargaining cycles – like language capping class sizes and establishing mental health teams in each school – prevented the district from offering competitive pay increases this cycle.
Not only will existing student supports remain in place under the new contracts, but SPFE won language that will reduce caseloads for some special-ed teachers, as well as new supports for dual language immersion educators.
The agreement also restores site councils at schools across the district, giving local educators, parents, students and district administrators a voice in decisions on budget priorities, events and other issues.
New contract language also will establish an easy process for educators who wish to change their names or pronouns used by the district, extending a policy to staff members that has been in place for SPPS students for about a decade.
“No one contract campaign can fix all of the things we need for our students and for our educators,” Erica Schatzlein, a member of the SPFE Executive Board, said during a press conference announcing the agreement. “But I do feel strongly that this is one big step.”
Throughout negotiations, which began last May, the SPFE bargaining team maintained that the district was painting an overly dire financial picture, pointing to a record $56 million increase in state funding delivered by lawmakers last year.
When union leaders asked for strike authorization in February, members responded with an overwhelming “yes” vote. Two weeks later, the SPFE filed notice of its intent to begin striking March 11 barring an agreement with the district.
A mediation session between two sides scheduled for Friday, March 1, stretched deep into the weekend without an agreement, and VanDassor said administrators’ economic offer did not meaningfully improve until educators held a raucous round of informational picketing outside district headquarters Monday, March 3.
When the two sides returned to the table, the district brought more money, doubling its proposed wage increase for educational assistants, VanDassor said.
SPFE members have voted to authorize a strike in every bargaining cycle since 2018, but union leaders found reason to believe a more collaborative bargaining relationship with the district could be possible. VanDassor credited school board members – six of whom her union endorsed – for taking more active role in negotiations.
“Elections matter, they really do,” she said. “We’ve turned over the board over with people who support educators and families. And it’s clear at the table, where we had four of six board members who could participate in negotiations actually show up and do that. It turned the tide.
“This is a step forward in our work with the board so we don’t get to this point again. It’s very encouraging.”
Union Advocate 
[…] school year, educators in large school districts like St. Paul, Anoka-Hennepin and St. Francis have voted to authorize strikes, although all three unions settled before a work […]