Board approves 2024-2025 negotiated agreements with employee groups

The Lincoln Board of Education has approved the following negotiated agreements with staff groups for the 2024-2025 school year.

Certificated Staff - Lincoln Education Association

On Feb. 13, 2024, the Board approved the contract agreement between Lincoln Education Association (LEA) and Lincoln Public Schools. The agreement covers approximately 3,700 LPS employees who are teachers, librarians, nurses, social workers, counselors, school psychologists, speech language pathologists and early childhood and home-based teachers.

The agreement represents an intentional combination of the valuable contributions our teachers make for Lincoln Public Schools and revitalizing district practices to support student learning along with teacher retention and recruitment, providing a total compensation package increase of 4.55 percent for the 2024-25 school year, with the base salary increasing from $47,356 to $48,556.

In addition, there was a change to the salary schedule to reduce the number of steps from 40 to 25 to make it more sustainable, and target the unintended compression in the salary schedule for mid-career professionals. The school district will also assume the 1.99% health insurance premium increase.  

In addition to a compensation package increase, are changes to the school calendar that will impact staff, students and families. The first major change is the end of early release for professional learning each Tuesday for high schools, and once a month for elementary and middle schools. The professional learning time will now be a part of the six non-student days within the new calendar for planning and professional development. All certificated staff will continue to have a 189-day calendar, with 175 days for student learning. A new calendar was approved by the Board on Feb. 27. 

Other changes include:

• An additional $700,000 towards extra standards compensation. This includes an increase in coordinator stipends from $11,329 to $15,000, and a move from 10 extra days to 14.
• Accumulated leave payout will increase from $16.50 to $20.00 per hour following 10 years of service.
• The 189-day teacher contract will be the same at all levels and broken down as follows:
• There are a total of 175 student learning days.
• In August, five days before students begin for professional learning and planning.
• Two days within the school year are for parent-teacher conferences.
• One day after the end of the student calendar will be a staff work day.
• Six days within the school year are for professional learning in the morning with autonomous plan time in the afternoon. Of those six days, four will be for building-led professional learning and two for district-lead sessions.
• Required staff meetings will be reduced to a maximum of one meeting per month for up to 75 minutes.
• The threshold for staff to ratify any variance in a school building was lowered from 85 percent to 75 percent approval.
• Upon return from one-year Leave Of Absence, staff will be placed where there are openings in the district after surplus certificated employees are assigned. They will no longer be guaranteed their former position or location.
• The number of “Blackout Days” or days in which staff cannot request time off was reduced to the first and last five student days and the days immediately before and after a scheduled break.
• A joint committee will be formed to review the LPS appraisal process, the new teacher tenure model and extra standard roles and pay.

Classified Staff and Administrators

The Lincoln Board of Education approved one-year negotiated agreements with seven employee groups on May 14, 2024, during their regular meeting that includes pay increases for employees that support teaching and learning. Classified workers, or non-certified staff, make up roughly 45% of the LPS workforce totalling approximately 3,000 workers overall.

This agreement represents the largest single-year salary increase since 2004 for paraeducators, office professionals, technicians, and maintenance staff. It ranks among the top three single-year salary increases since 2004 for custodians and nutrition services workers.

As part of the negotiated agreement, LPS will assume the health insurance out of pocket increase of 1.99% for all bargaining groups. Other highlights of the agreements include:

• Paraeducators: 7% total package increase to include a 7.51% salary increase (range per hour going from $14.64-$18.49 to $15.96-$19.82) and changes to the service year stipend (range going from $0.25-$1.00 to $0.30-$1.10).
• Office Professionals: 4.55% total package increase to include a 4.26% salary increase (range per hour going from $18.51-$23.49 to $19.30-$24.49) and changes to the service year stipend (range going from $0.70-$1.10 to $0.75-$1.15). 
• Technicians: 4.55% total package increase to include 4.49% salary increase and changes to the service year stipend (increasing existing levels by $0.10 and adding a level for employees with 20+ years of experience with LPS).
• Maintenance Staff: 4.55% total package increase to include 4.73% salary increase (range per hour going from $24.78-$46.44 to $27.27-$49.76).
• Custodians: 5% total package increase to include 5.07% salary increase (range per hour from $18.59-$26.86 to $19.53-$28.22).
• Nutrition Services: 5.50% total package increase to include 5.51% salary increase (range per hour going from $15.53-$23.10 to $16.37-$24.35) and changes to the service year stipend (range going from $0.30-$0.80 to $0.45-$1.25).
• Administrators: 4.55% total package increase to include 4.28% salary increase and adjustments to long-service increments.
• Transportation: On June 11, 2024, the Board approved the negotiated agreement with the Transportation Employee Association for the 2024-2025 school year. The agreement includes a total package increase of 10.06%, with an 11.03% salary increase. The total package also includes increases in Social Security and retirement costs. The estimated 1.99% increase in health insurance premiums will be covered by the school district for the 2024-25 year. The death benefit payout will also increase from $5,000 to $20,000.

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