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Panel urges pay increases for classified school staff as committee hears salary allocation bill
Summary
Senate Bill 5,517 would raise the state's minimum salary allocations for classified school staff and create separate allocations for classified administrative staff; witnesses including school employees and unions testified about recruitment, retention and financial hardship; fiscal estimates run into the hundreds of millions.
The Early Learning & K–12 Education Committee heard Senate Bill 5,517, which would increase the state's minimum salary allocation used to calculate state funding for classified school staff and, beginning in the 2027–28 school year, split the classified category into "classified administrative staff" and "other classified staff" with different allocations.
Alex Fair Fortune, staff to the committee, described the current funding model: the state uses minimum salary allocations paired with staff ratios in the prototypical school model to generate funding. He said the bill increases the classified staff minimum allocation from $56,105 to $67,325 beginning in the 2025–26 school year, rising to $73,384 the following year, and then establishes separate allocations in 2027–28 of $99,164 for classified administrative staff and $79,988 for other classified staff. Fortune recited the fiscal estimate: "a fiscal note is available and reflects an estimated cost of 695,000,000 in the 25 27 biennium, '1 point '6 billion in the 27 29 biennium, and 2,600,000,000.0 in the 29 31 biennium."
Supporters — education unions, school employees and district officials — urged the committee to advance the bill to address recruitment and retention problems and the widespread use of second jobs among educational support professionals (ESPs). Larry Delaney, president of the Washington Education Association and a high school math teacher, said ESPs are "the heart of our schools" and described staff performing essential roles ranging from nutrition services to transportation to translation. Janie White, vice president of the WEA and an office professional, testified that low wages push ESPs to take additional jobs and reduce stability for students.
Multiple individual school employees testified on working conditions and personal hardship. Davina Racola, a food service lead at Foster High School in Tukwila, described understaffing in custodial and food-service positions and said several summer positions went unfilled because the hours and pay were insufficient. Jason Scott, a head custodian, described rent increases that have absorbed wage gains and said the bill "would significantly improve compensation for K–12 classified staff." Bay Knight, a paraeducator in Bremerton, said higher wages would allow classified staff to keep their jobs and reduce the need for multiple jobs.
Representatives of district and finance organizations supported higher compensation but urged caution about implementation. Dan Steele of the Association of Washington School Administrators and School Business Officials said members "respect classified staff" but worried that a large increase in minimum allocations without corresponding changes elsewhere could complicate collective bargaining and create pressure for other bargaining units to seek parity. Several district CFOs and superintendents urged the legislature to consider staffing ratios in the prototypical model as an alternative route to improving services and noted local budget constraints.
Ending: No final vote was taken; committee members were presented with testimony and fiscal modeling to inform further work on compensation policy and budget tradeoffs.
