School District Offering $500 Wage Increases, Unions Want 3%

The Waukesha School District is offering teachers an across-the-board $500 raise for the 2012-13 school year as the district and the Education Association of Waukesha began negotiations Monday on last year’s contract.

The raise is equivalent to a total 1 percent salary increase, according to Chris Hedstrom, assistant superintendent of human resources for the school district. The raises would not be applied to teacher’s who left the district following the 2012-13 school year.

The EAW is requesting a 3.16 percent raise for the 2012-13 school year and a 2.07 percent raise for the 2013-14 school year. The requested raises are based off of the cost of living and a comparison to other salary increases at area school districts, according to union president Cathy Atkinson.

“We are hear to listen to your ideas and explanations to whatever you provide us,” Atkinson said.” We hope that you do the same with us.”

However, the lack of raises for the teachers who left at the end of the school year is a point of contention, including those who retired.

“I really don’t understand morally how you can not pay someone who left the district and performed the work,” said one of the members of the union’s bargaining team.

The school district does not want to reward teachers who left the district, leaving the district in “a tough situation” with staffing, according to Superintendent Todd Gray.

“We had a lot of people who signed contracts and reneged on us,” Gray said.

The future bargaining meetings will be held in closed session.