PORT ANGELES — The union representing Port Angeles paraeducators and the Port Angeles School District are still at the bargaining table three months after classes started.
The two sides are at odds over compensation, but said they hoped to reach a settlement before the end of the year.
The Port Angeles Paraeducators Association is pushing for a 3.7 percent pay raise — the same bump to which the Port Angeles Education Association, which represents teachers and counselors, and the district agreed in September. The district says there is simply not room in the budget to meet that demand.
The teachers’ contract guarantees salary resets each year over the next three years based on the implicit price deflator — or IPD. This year that number is 3.7 percent.
“When we are asking for IPDs, it’s within reason and it’s within their budget,” said Rebecca Winters, the PAPEA union representative.
The implicit price deflator (IPD) is a number determined by the state and based on a Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce calculation. It is an alternative measure of inflation to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and is generally smaller.
The state Legislature set the 3.7 percent IPD wage adjustment during its 2023 regular session, but it did not provide the funding to fully cover the cost of implementing it. This meant many school districts had to dig into their own already squeezed budgets to meet increases — which wasn’t always possible.
That was the case in Port Angeles, said Scott Harker, the district’s director of human resources.
“We sure did not get 3.7 percent more [money] than last year,” Harker said.
The district also had to cut $5 million from its 2023-24 budget to close a shortfall, which did not leave it with enough to provide every employee with a 3.7 percent raise this year. However, the district has in the past been able to give bargaining groups the equivalent of the IPD, Harker said.
Paraeducators, for example, received wage increases of 3 percent in 2021-2022 and 5.5 percent in 2022-2023.
Harker said he understood paraeducators wanted to be compensated equitably and that their roles were essential, but like other non-teaching employees, such as office workers and custodians, their numbers were greater than what the state provided funding for.
This year, the district received an allocation for 5.4 full-time equivalent paraeducators. It employs 130.
And although all but one paraeducator is full time, that funding doesn’t go far when it is spread over so many employees, Harker said.
Winters said the PAPEA was not unsympathetic to the financial constraints the state’s inadequate funding placed on the district.
“In all fairness, I also want to see things from the district’s point of view,” Winters said. “We are actually trying to be considerate of the fact that our district was in a deficit, so we aren’t even bargaining longevity.”
At the same time, she said, there were sources the district could tap that should go toward paraeducator salaries. As an example, she said, 30 paraeducators lost their jobs in the spring as part of the district’s cost-cutting.
“But they turned around this school year and just hired an additional 22,” she said. “What that tells us is that if they can continue to rehire and add new jobs, they do have the funding — not just the basic education allocation from the state, it’s through SPED (special education). To me that funding is also part of our 3.7 (percent).”
The majority of paraeducators do work with students who receive special education services. This is in addition to providing individualized learning and emotional support to students who have a range of learning, physical and behavior challenges.
The demands, scope and intensity of paraeducators’ work had increased, Winters said, and they wanted compensation that reflected their value and that paid a living wage.
“We shouldn’t have to fight that hard because of all we do for the district,” Winters said. “We love what we do, and that’s how we’re able to keep going at it. But [bargaining] is exhausting and it’s wearing us down.”
Washington lawmakers in April did increase school districts’ funding for special education. But similar to the IPD, the increase fell short for places like Port Angeles.
“We’re still upside down in special ed funding,” Harker said, because the district enrolls more special education students than the number the state provides for.
Harker said that while it was easy to focus on wages, there were other kinds of compensation that made the paraeducator position attractive even though it was not a full-time job for most.
“If you work for the school district there are good benefits that go with it,” Harker said. “If you work halftime, or 3 1/2 hours a day, or more, you get full medical benefits,” Harker said, as well as qualify for retirement benefits.
It does not appear the current impasse in negotiations is leading toward a strike like the one in November 2018 when teachers refused to cross paraeducator picket lines and forced the district to close facilities and cancel classes for two days.
Winters and Harker said they wanted to come to an agreement in which each side could walk away satisfied.
“What we’re looking at doing is continue to work with the union to come up with the deal that’s going to work for both of us,” Harker said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at Paula.Hunt@peninsuladailynews.com
