APS and teachers union reach tentative agreement on bell-to-bell pay and raises

Salary increases, stipends for duty time and more money for athletic coaches are in the pipeline for school staff this coming year under a tentative agreement reached by Albuquerque Public Schools and the Albuquerque Teachers Federation earlier this month and announced Monday.

The agreement, according to a news release from the district and the union, is set for a ratification vote extending from next Monday to next Wednesday. The school board is also set to take it up Aug. 2.

If approved, the agreement would span the next two years.

The tentative deal, ATF President Ellen Bernstein said, resolves concerns raised by the union earlier this year when APS announced new bell schedules for schools. By lengthening school days, the union worried the bell schedules would have taken away the paid time they used for tasks like supervising students.

But by giving schools as many as a dozen stipends for yearlong 20-minute supervision station assignments that staff can volunteer for, Bernstein said those concerns have been more or less addressed, for the time being. For educators, the stipends would be about 5% of their base pay.

“That is the solution to the bell-to-bell schedule. It’s not the whole solution,” she said, adding later that only time will tell what further issues may arise.

The union and district also negotiated changes to the differential pay given to some athletic coaches, which is money paid to school staff for additional duties beyond their main job like coaching. At least one differential increase exceeded $4,400.

“Our coaches — their differential had not increased in … years,” APS Executive Director of Labor Relations and Staffing Valerie Hoose told the Journal. “So it’s important for us to attract and retain coaches, and for coaches to know that their work is valued.”

The agreement would also make changes related to the extra instructional time implemented in the coming school year’s academic calendar, including adjustments to the amount of sick leave educators get.

In addition to four additional paid days, corresponding with the district’s new academic calendar, the district and union also agreed to increase the salaries of educators by 6% with money approved by state lawmakers for that purpose earlier this year.

For example, starting Level 1 teachers last year made a flat $50,000 minimum salary. If the tentative agreement is approved, they would begin at $54,152 in the coming school year.

Last year, the district and union reached a tentative agreement to give instructional support providers, like counselors and social workers, the same minimum salaries as teachers after raises approved by lawmakers earlier in the year primarily for the latter failed to include the former.

But that tentative agreement, announced at the end of the school year for many and later ratified by union members, was temporarily undermined by the school board in a mid-August meeting that saw the full negotiated agreement tabled over concerns with unrelated topics.

That led to about a weeklong negotiations impasse, until the school board met again and approved the agreement after a roughly two-hour-long meeting behind closed doors.