The Haines Borough School District Board unanimously approved a contract with the teacher’s union that provided a 10% raise to Haines School teachers and staff.
Lisa Andriesen, president of the negotiating team, said the priority of the Haines Education Association was to improve wages in order to attract new staff and retain current staff.
“Since Haines was near the bottom of salary rankings for Alaska school districts, it has made us less competitive, especially in Southeast Alaska,” Andreisen wrote to the CVN. “In addition, an increase in wages helps staff to cope with the rise in inflation over recent years. Both the district and association had similar goals and concerns for changes in the contract and worked collaboratively through Interest-based bargaining to come to an agreement.”
The CVN previously reported that of the 54 school districts in Alaska, Haines teachers were among the lowest paid. Haines ranked 49th out of 54 for the highest paid salaries according to an NEA-Alaska (NEA) salary comparison survey. After the contract approval, the starting wage for a Haines teacher went from $45,905 to $50,496 moving Haines up to 31 out of 54. The ending salary went from $79,425 to $87,367.
Haines Borough School District superintendent Roy Getchell told the CVN the negotiation felt more like problem solving and that the result will make the district more competitive in hiring.
“I think we all recognized we had work to do to keep our school competitive and continue to attract and retain the best educators,” Getchell said. “I think we made good steps in doing that responsibly and in a way that makes us competitive with other regional Southeast school districts.”
Andriesen thanked the district for the “constructive conversation and for setting recruitment and retention of qualified professionals as a priority for the students of the HBSD communities.”
At Tuesday’s board meeting, Getchell also noted that the Alaska Legislature is working to increase the base student allocation. The allocation hasn’t been adjusted since 2016.
“Think of your own paychecks not increasing in that time and that’s the situation we find ourselves in today,” Getchells said of the state’s allocation of education funding.
The board also accepted the resignation of social studies teacher Lee Robinson and hired a new K-12 art teacher. Six new staff were hired last month including new elementary, middle school and highschool teachers and a new assistant principal.