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Teachers union lays out cost-of-care crunch as tentative raise offer would still cut take-home pay this year
Summary
Marysville teachers association leaders told the board that rising health insurance premiums have absorbed most salary gains over 17 years and explained a tentative agreement (2.25% for 2025, 3.25% for 2026) that would still reduce average take-home pay this year by roughly $72 per month before improving it modestly next year.
Angela Stagel, president of the Marysville Unified Teachers Association, and union vice president Erica Schlesler spoke to the board on June 9 during the employee-organization portion of the meeting about the district’s tentative bargaining agreement and the effect of rising health insurance costs on teachers’ pay.
"We have over 550 professional educators in this district," Stagel said, thanking staff for recent promotions and graduations and framing the bargaining discussion as part of supporting those educators. Schlesler then walked trustees through the association’s analysis of salary and benefits changes over the last 17 years.
Schlesler said health insurance premiums have climbed substantially, from a 2009 premium she cited as about $1,153 to a projected premium of about $3,130 in the coming year. She said the teacher share of premiums rose from about $377 to roughly $1,949 per month and calculated that, across the period she analyzed, roughly 87% of cumulative salary gains were absorbed by health insurance increases. "If you take all of the salary increases, add them up and subtract the health insurance increases ... the total increase is $370 a month," she said.
The tentative agreement the union described would provide a 2.25% increase for 2025 and 3.25% for 2026. Schlesler said the package, if ratified, would leave the average teacher with a monthly take-home-pay decrease of about $72 for the current year and a modest increase (about $17 per month) next year, because premiums rise faster than the salary adjustments in the near term.
Union leaders said they will distribute details to members for a ratification vote. They emphasized the larger context—rising costs for health care and cost-of-living pressures—and urged the board to weigh those pressures in upcoming budget and bargaining decisions.
Board members asked clarifying questions but did not take action on bargaining at the meeting. Superintendent Jordan Reeves and district staff later answered operational questions elsewhere on the agenda about budget timing and grants; the bargaining negotiations remain subject to formal ratification by union members and any additional board actions required to fund negotiated increases.
What happens next: the teachers association will present the tentative agreement details to members for ratification and the board will consider budget implications as part of the district’s ongoing budget process.
