Lincoln Education Association, LPS reach tentative one-year agreement with 3.8% package increase
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Summary
District and union negotiators reached a tentative one-year agreement that raises base pay and adjusts benefit cost-sharing; the board will consider ratification at a future meeting.
Lincoln Public Schools staff and the Lincoln Education Association announced a tentative one-year negotiated agreement Feb. 11 that the district said includes a 3.8% total package increase and a 3.55% increase devoted to base salary.
Blake Simpson, LPS director of employee relations and chief negotiator for the district, told the Board of Education the agreement raises the base salary by $1,000 to $49,556 and reflects a 5.49% increase in health-insurance costs through the Educators Health Alliance. Simpson said the health cost increase will be shared with employees on an 80/20 split for the out-of-pocket increase (80% district / 20% employee for the increment), and the district negotiated administrative and structural changes intended to recognize experienced staff and ease onboarding for new hires.
Among the contract highlights Simpson described are a leave-buyback program and expanded annual-leave accrual for step-15 employees, a change to a 13-month pay plan for new hires in their first year (the same total gross pay spread over 13 checks to provide an earlier first pay), and formalizing an existing practice around elementary supervision time that had been handled historically by memorandum of understanding.
Simpson said the parties also adjusted the internal posting timeline by moving the voluntary transfer deadline from the last week of June to the first week of June and agreed to study via a joint committee whether optional elementary posting periods are feasible. He described changes to professional time structuring and a revised approach to blackout dates for prearranged absences based on a review of leave data.
Board members thanked negotiators for the work and said the tentative agreement will return to the board for formal action at the next meeting. No final board vote was taken Feb. 11; Simpson described the agreement as a one-year deal arrived at through direct negotiations with LEA representatives.
