JEA approves contract with school district, board set to vote Tuesday
- Jasz Garrett
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
Juneau teachers hopeful future process will be different after more than a year of negotiations
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
After more than a year of negotiations, the Juneau Education Association ratified a tentative contract agreement with the Juneau School District on Monday.
The Juneau Board of Education will vote on the contract at its scheduled regular meeting Tuesday at Thunder Mountain Middle School.
On Thursday, the board held its first reading of the collective bargaining agreement, which includes wage increases and continued employer support for health insurance premiums. The district’s contribution to health care increases by $50 this year and $40 next year, and is retroactive.
“I do intend to support this when it comes back to us in the final reading,” said Elizabeth Siddon, vice president of the school board. “It was a very long process and I’m very glad we are where we are today in moving this forward hopefully. Personally, I know we said this at the onset of the process — this is the JEA union; these are also our neighbors, our friends, our kids’ teachers.”
Board President Britteny Cioni-Haywood said she felt similarly.
Both parties reached a tentative agreement on March 20 shortly after the union, which represents about 275 teachers and certified staff, authorized a strike. Janette Gagnon, who teaches at Johnson Youth Center, said the last two bargaining sessions have been long. Negotiations for this two-year contract began in February 2025.
“I very much appreciate the speediness and open communication that happened at the end of this session, and I’m appreciative of this contract,” Gagnon testified Thursday. “No contract is perfect and (it) still doesn’t keep up with inflation, but I personally recognize going into the summer and the next school year some new administration and having a contract that can help to pay the bills really makes a difference.”
A large majority of teachers accepted the agreement this week, according to Kelley Harvey, co-chair of JEA’s negotiation support team and the union’s executive board representative for all elementary school teachers. She has taught in the district for 27 years and currently teaches at Auke Bay Elementary School.
The agreement includes a 3% overall increase this year, but it varies for members. It depends on a teacher’s year of service.
“That means some people this year out of that 3%, some teachers got a bigger increase than others,” Harvey said. “Some didn’t get three, some got 1.5%.”
While not every teacher receives the 3% increase, it will allow the salary schedule to be reindexed and become aligned moving forward. Starting next year, all teachers will go up 2.6% each year based on their years of service, making the salary schedule consistent. Additionally, there is a 6.25% raise next year.
On top of this year’s adjusted salary, there is a 2% lump sum payment that is retroactive.
According to JEA, key issues of the dispute with the district were “competitive wages that keep up with the high cost of living in Juneau” and “affordable health care.”
“I think both of those will continue to be issues, because the cost of living continues to rise and our health care continues to rise,” Harvey said. “The raise that we did get with this tentative agreement, there will still be teachers next year — some may be breaking even. There will still be teachers who will be taking home less.”
Another persistent concern over the last year was adequate preparation time for teachers, which was resolved in the tentative agreement. Harvey said the prep time middle school teachers have for grading assignments and preparing lessons was left unchanged, whereas before it was proposed to be cut in half.
Harvey said the contract is a step in the right direction.
“I think the disrespect was the year long of not having any movement on the district’s part, that was the really frustrating thing — that we just weren’t getting anywhere,” she said. “That we went through mediation and it failed, that we were in arbitration because we just couldn’t get anywhere. That’s the part where we didn’t feel like we were being heard. And I think this TA (tentative agreement) shows that we were finally heard.”
She added that many district families, students and community members reached out to the school board and showed support for teachers. Harvey said her main concern was not for herself, but being able to encourage new young teachers to spend their career in Juneau.
The two-year agreement covers the current school year and the 2026-2027 school year. Harvey said by the time the next negotiations start in 2027, there will be a new superintendent and governor.
“I would hope that when we go into this again, we’re not spending a year with no movement and that the process is productive,” Harvey said. “It got to a place where I don’t think any teacher wanted it to get. It should have never gotten to this point.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
