After eight months of negotiations as part of the collective bargaining process with the Prince William Education Association (PWEA), a three-year collective bargaining agreement on benefits and terms and conditions of employment was tentatively agreed upon by the School Board’s and PWEA’s bargaining teams. PWCS is hopeful that this agreement will be ratified by the employees in each bargaining unit.
The division proposed a contract including a nearly $70 million salary and benefit package of approximately $64 million in increased salary and more than $5 million increase in other wages and benefits. PWEA negotiators did not reach an agreement on the wage proposal before the December 1 deadline.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with PWEA on significant benefits that will continue to ensure we are the best place to work,” said Prince William County School Board Chairman At-Large, Dr. Babur Lateef. “We are disappointed that we could not reach an agreement on wages. The School Board and administration are committed to ensuring competitive wages for our employees even without an agreement.”
The School Board’s bargaining team made an aggressive proposal on wages that would have provided tremendous benefits for employees while maintaining fiscal responsibility. However, an agreement on wages was not reached with PWEA. The PWCS $64 million wage proposal includes the following terms that were not approved by the PWEA:
- A 6 percent average salary increase (in addition to the 2 percent salary increase to be provided to employees beginning in January 2024).
- A maximum 9 percent salary increase for certified staff with 12-18 years of experience as of June 30, 2024, to ensure those employees’ salaries are competitive with peer school divisions.
- For classified employees, an expansion of the salary scale from 2.89 percent to 3 percent between steps, bringing pay equity between the classified and certified pay scales.
The parties tentatively agreed to the following, pending ratification by the School Board, and ratification by employees:
- Paying teachers who teach summer school and extended school year their hourly rates.
- A new short-term disability benefit that covers employees after the first 30 days of employment at no cost to the employee.
- Continuing to pay the same proportional share of any health care premium increases.
- Increased pay for teachers who teach an extra class during the workday.
- Increasing supplements teachers receive for extracurricular duties, including the addition of supplements for middle school band assistants, choral directors, choral assistants, and orchestra and drama teachers, and elementary music teachers.