Anchorage School Board unanimously approves new contract with teachers union

Anchorage teachers will get 3% raises and a boost to their health care contributions next school year after the school board Tuesday night unanimously approved a one-year contract agreement between the district and the teachers union.

The contract, first approved last month by members of the Anchorage Education Association, affects more than 3,000 teachers and other district employees. It will run from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.

The new contract represents the largest single-year wage and health benefits increase for educators in more than a decade, according to Anchorage School District superintendent Jharrett Bryantt.

Still, some school board members said Tuesday that the contract represents just a step toward more competitive wages after years of flat state funding that the district and board members have linked to a growing number of teacher vacancies district-wide.

More than 400 teacher, paraprofessional and support staff positions remained unfilled this year, likely as a result of noncompetitive wages and retirement benefits, school administrators said during a Tuesday evening work session.

Union president Cory Aist has said that school districts in other states offer starting wages about $10,000 higher per year, pulling many would-be Anchorage teachers away from Alaska.

“Alaska cannot produce, as it stands right now, enough educators to fill vacancies across the state. So we’re forced to recruit from the Lower 48,” board member Carl Jacobs said during the Tuesday meeting.

“I think this is a step in the process of this board doing what it can to remedy our recruitment and retention challenges,” he said.

Aist said last month that the increase in health benefit contributions was aimed at offsetting rising health care costs in Anchorage and nationwide.

Board member Dave Donley said that while he supported the contract, he took issue with some of the language in it.

His concerns included a lack of clearly defined instructional hours required during remote learning days; getting rid of a requirement that teachers have master’s and doctorate degrees to access the full pay range; and restrictions around spontaneous parental visits to classrooms.

“But I recognize that this one-year agreement is really keyed around the increases in pay, which I believe are appropriate, and increases for the cost of health care, which I believe are appropriate,” he said.

[Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described one of board member Dave Donley’s concerns with the new contract. It doesn’t eliminate pay increases for teachers with advanced degrees, but it allows teachers with bachelor’s degrees to also access those increases.]