D.C. public schoolteachers would get a raise and more planning time as part of a tentative agreement with the city on a new five-year union contract.
The tentative agreement, which both the Washington Teachers’ Union and Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday night, comes after over a year of negotiations. It still has to be ratified by the union’s members.
The union’s last contract took over three years, and the one that preceded it took about five, WTU president Jacqueline Pogue-Lyons said. She called the fact the most recent agreement took only about a year “something to celebrate.”
The contract includes a raise for the union’s members, but Pogue-Lyons didn’t elaborate on the structure, because members haven’t yet had a chance to review the terms of the agreement, she said. But many other protections are tied to working conditions for teachers, which Pogue-Lyons said are essential to attracting and retaining educators.
“There’s so much competition to get great and knowledgeable people,” Pogue Lyons said. “So we want to get them, but we also want to keep them. We don’t want a revolving door, because we feel the longer we keep our teachers, the better they become as educators.”
She added that the deal includes a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on achieving and keeping diversity in schools and an MOA on climate, which is tied to ensuring classrooms have enough ventilation and that air quality is good.
The agreement has details on controlling class size and will enable teachers to keep their vision and dental insurance, which they feared they might lose. It features more planning time, Pogue Lyons said, and the assurance that special education and other teachers won’t be pulled out of their classrooms to perform other duties.
“When those things happen, we’re not able to meet the needs of the students that were tasked to teach, especially our most vulnerable population,” Pogue Lyons said.
In a joint statement, Pogue-Lyons, Bowser and Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said the agreement “shows what can be achieved when we work together with a common goal of putting students first. With this agreement, we are reaffirming our commitment to investing in our young people and making D.C. the number one city for teachers.”
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