Silver Falls School District Board of Directors unanimously approved the 2025–26 collective bargaining agreement with the Silver Falls Education Association during its meeting, the board chair announced.

The agreement, presented by district staff, makes several operational changes to the teacher workday and work year, expands a grading-release provision for language-arts teachers, updates leave language to align with recent state law changes, and applies a 2.5% increase across salary lines including base pay, stipends and extra-duty rates.

District staff said the workday and work-year adjustments move this year to three full professional-development days and create an option for schools to adopt a one-hour weekly professional-development period when building leadership and staff agree. “These were tentatively agreed upon,” the district presenter said, noting the calendar alignment was needed to finalize work-year tables. The agreement also requires principals to disclose required evening activities at the beginning of the year and for the district to collect data on how often teachers attend those activities.

On grading time, the contract increases the number of paid release days for language-arts teachers from three to four, subject to substitute availability. Leave-with-pay provisions were revised to reflect changes enacted by the legislature in how covered family members are defined, the presenter said. Article 19 retains a target-based approach to class size (targets, not mandatory caps) and clarifies which specialist caseloads qualify for stipends.

Insurance and opt-out provisions were adjusted in the new agreement and district staff said the negotiated changes were considered reasonable during budget planning. The board packet also noted two new stipends — district testing coordinator and district TAG (talented and gifted) coordinator — were added to the schedule.

Board members thanked district negotiators and the association for reaching agreement. When the motion to adopt the agreement was called, the chair asked for a vote; the board voted to approve the agreement unanimously.

The district said it will prepare signed contract copies for the union, the district and a formal archive copy after the board’s action.