The Classified Contract has been Ratified!

You can read the highlights below.

Join Your Union - Have Your Voice Heard!

What's in the Contract?

4.7% GPA

All Classified employees will receive a 4.7% GPA (General Pay Adjustment.) This means that all wages on the wage scale increase by 4.7%. You can view the current wage scale in your 2022-2023 contract on page 44.

2.5% Step

All non-"Topped-Out" employees will receive a 2.5% Step Increase. This means that your wage will go to the next "step" on the wage scale. For example, if you were a B4 on the wage scale during 2022-2023, you would move up to a B5.

2.5% Para Career Ladder

All Paras who qualify to take the next "step" on their career ladder will receive an additional 2.5% increase.

The only change made to career ladder (instead of your negotiation team having to freeze it for one year, or remove it altogether) is that next year, in the 2024-2025 school year, ranges E-I will require an additional 25 points in order to complete your step.

For more information on how Para Career Ladder works, please read your 2022-2023 contract on page 45, or check out the bottom of the USD 259 Page on our website.

Longevity

Employees who qualify for Longevity will receive their Longevity payment by November 30th, at the same rate as last years contract.

3% for 10 Year Employees (As of July 1st)

7% for 20 Year Employees (As of July 1st)

11% for 30 Year Employees (As of July 1st)

Longevity years of service are calculated as of July 1st. For example, to receive your 10 year Longevity bonus, you must have been employed and benefited as of July 1st, 2013.

2 Year Contract

This means that your contract will remain in place during the 2023-2024, and 2024-2025 School years.

Wage Increases will be as follows

2023-2024: 4.7% GPA

2024-2025: 5% GPA

New items cannot be negotiated unless in a mutually agreed upon Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between SEIU and USD 259.

Negotiations can only be reopened if school enrollment drops by 2%, or if the legislature per pupil base state aid is reduced.

Why a 2-Year Contract?

A 2-year contract guarantees your wage increase next year of 5%, which matches the Security Proposed GPA, and the UTW (Teacher's Union) GPA for the 2024-2025 school year.

Nutrition Services Uniform Allowance

Nutrition Services Uniform Allowance terms have been changed to be $18/hr x FTE (Full Time Equivalent.)

For example, if you work 20 hours a week, your Uniform Allowance would be: $18 x 20 hours x 0.5 FTE = $180.

Previously, the allowance was a maximum of $150.

FTE is calculated by taking your hours worked per week, divided by 40.

Clerical Growth Program

4th Step

The Clerical Professional Growth Program will have a 4th Step added!

Clerical Career Ladder will be:

Step 1: $30/month

Step 2: $50/month

Step 3: $70/month

Step 4: $100/month

Custodian Grace Med $0.50/hr

Custodians assigned to work at GraceMed will have an additional $0.50/hour added to their base pay.

One custodian per building (at buildings which clean a GraceMed Clinic) will qualify for the additional compensation.

Property Damage and Replacement

There is now contract language that will cover the replacement value (up to $1,200) of items damaged at work due to a physical attack or willful malice*.

*The contract language will match that of UTW's contract.

Previously, there was no contract language for Classified on Property Damage.

SSC Supervisor Coverage

The time frame in which a subordinate employee needs to work before being compensated extra for filling in for a supervisor has shorted from 14 days to 7 days.

This primarily impacts employees at the School Service Center.

Health Room Assistant Catch-Up

Two Health Room Assistants previously moved positions from being paras and missed out certain career ladder opportunities.

These two staff members will finally be caught up.

Conference Release Day Clarification

Employees cannot use Personal Business time to extend a holiday except for the conference release day in November.

Mandatory EAP Removed

Progressive Disciplinary Action language will change to remove the mandatory referral to an Employee Assistance Program when an employee is in deduct status for the first time.

Levy Added to Premium Pay

Classified Staff Members at Levy will be added to the list of schools who qualify for a Premium Pay of an additional $0.50/hr

The current list of schools that receive Premium Pay are Gateway, Wells, Bryant and Sowers.

Cost of Beneifts

Cost of healthcare benefits will remain unchanged.

This may sound pretty basic, but considering healthcare costs have risen significantly across the country over the past year (and in recent years prior), this is a huge win for Classified employees that benefit costs continue to remain unchanged.

Wellness Point Simplification

Wellness Program has been further simplified to be a Wellness Discount with a more streamlined process outlined in the new contract.

MOU's

MOU = Memorandum of Understanding.

Any item listed below with MOU is not memorialized in your contract, and instead, is a temporary agreement put into writing. MOUs are mutually agreed upon between the District and SEIU Local 513.

MOUs can also be found on our website at SEIUKansas.com/USD259 at the very bottom of the page.

Para Covering Classroom Pay MOU

During the 2023-2024 school year, a Para who is covering the classroom while the teacher is in the building but out of the classroom for more than 30 consecutive minutes will receive an additional $5/hour.

The full MOU can be read here.

This is different from Para Supervision Classroom pay which occurs when the teacher is out of the building. That rate is also an additional $5/hour. Details are on page 12 of your 2022-2023 contract.

Non-Teaching Duty Day MOU

During the 2023-2024 school year, Paras who do not earn vacation time will have the pay they earned on non-teaching duty days moved to be paid out during winter break. This helps ensure that your paycheck during winter break isn't quite as small.

The full MOU can be read here.

Para Upgrade to 0.88 FTE MOU

All Assistant and Benefited Paras for 2023-2024 are able to increase from their current FTE (Full Time Equivalent) to a FTE of 0.88, during the 2023-2024 school year.

The full MOU can be read here.

Lunch Assignment MOU

A wide array of changes based on job position and FTE are in place for the 2023-2024 school year regarding lunch assignments.

The full MOU can be read here.

"Why Didn't We Get the Same GPA as The Teachers?"

All employee groups were offered 6.7% in total compensation.

Thanks to their Unions, Classified Staff, Security Staff and Teachers were able to negotiate how they wanted the 6.7% in total compensation to be distributed for their respective employee group.

“Total Compensation” includes costs such as GPA Increases, Step Increases, Career Ladders and Longevity.

Your Classified negotiating team took great care to ensure that there were minimal compromises, and that the new contract did what’s best for as many staff members as possible.

"Why Don't We Get Bonuses This Year?"

Bonuses provided over the past few years came from ESSER Funds.

Instead of getting a majority of your compensation via a bonus, majority of your compensation is in your GPA increase this year. This is better for employees because:

Bonus compensation did not increase your base wage. When your base wage is increased, it means future wage increases will also be more as opposed to if you received most of your compensation through a one-time bonus.
A larger GPA instead of a bonus also means that you get your compensation at every paycheck, instead of waiting on a bi-annual bonus.

Bonuses ensured you were able to get compensation despite low funding due to the low COVID era enrollment numbers.

"What is a standard GPA Increase?"

A 3% General Pay Adjustment is the gold standard.

"What about Bilingual Pay and the SSC Career Ladder?"

Both of these items were brought up during negotiations and it was determined that more time is needed in order to develop the qualifications and procedures for Bilingual Pay and an SSC Career Ladder. This does not mean that these items are guaranteed when negotiations begin in 2025. However, these items will be at the top of the list when we go to renegotiate in 2025.

"What About Juneteenth as a Paid Holiday?"

This is an item we also brought up this year, but plan to discuss further during negotiations in 2025. Adding Juneteenth as a Holiday, firstly would need to go through the district Calendar committee. If approved, there then would need to be negotiations on having it be a paid holiday.

"Who is My Negotiating Team?"

Your Negotiating Team Consists of All Elected Unit Chairs and Vice Chairs for Each Unit, as well as Esau Freeman, your Business Representative. Uni Chairs and Vice Chairs are:

Clerical Unit: Chair Debbie Ollek, Vice Chair David Moore

Custodial Unit: Chair Lee Moore, Vice Chair Joe Murphy

Nutrition Services Unit: Chair Andrae "Butter" Carter, Vice Chair Loui Fairbank

Para Unit: Chair Dina Williams, Vice Chair Wendy Ratliff

SSC Unit: Chair John Rodriguez, Vice Chair Chad Blanchat

Elections for Unit Officers are every 2 years, and will occur next year in fall of 2024. Any SEIU Member of 2 or more years, in good standing, can be elected for a Unit Officer position. Only Members can nominate and/or vote for Unit Officers. Information for electing Unit Officers can be found in the SEIU 513 Bylaws.

You can view all USD 259 Unit Chair Members here.

"How do I tell someone what I want in our next contract?"

Come to your Union Meeting and communicate with us! Meeting times can be found on our website here.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to be involved with your Union year round, not just during contract negotiations.

Often times, we don't hear from Members or Represented Employees until negotiations are happening, and it's by then, it's far too late to add any contract wants into the negotiation process.

We do our best to respect your free-time outside of work, and we seldom ask for Member participation beyond Union Meetings unless it's something that is important and meaningful for your work life.

Keep an eye on our monthly newsletter for upcoming events and ways to get involved, as there are many other ways we can work together to improve your work life!

"Why don't we get unemployment over the summer?"

Receiving unemployment over the summer is a state law issue, and has no basis in your Union Contract. This is why, every year, we take Members up to Topeka to lobby and meet with their legislators to talk about issues like:

Unemployment for Classified employees over the summer
Increasing Public Education funding and SPED funding
Improving Worker's Compensation Laws in Kansas

Our next Topeka Lobby Day is on January 24, 2024. To Participate, you need to use a vacation day. Transportation, snacks and lunch are provided. It's a great opportunity to look your legislators in the eyes, and tell them how these laws impact your lives. If you would like to attend, please email your Organizer Maia.