LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Members of the Jefferson County Teachers Association ratified Wednesday an agreement that will see their annual pay increase by 4% and higher if they work in some of the district’s neediest schools, JCTA Vice President Tammy Berlin said.

Eighty-seven percent of JCTA members who voted backed the agreement, and more than half of the union's membership participated in the ratification vote, she said.

The union's approval comes a day after the Jefferson County Board of Education voted in favor of the plan to provide 4% pay raises to all teachers starting July 1, a $1,000 continuity bonus for the 2022-23 school year and stipends starting at $8,000 per year beginning in 2023-24 for those who teach in “choice zone” and accelerated improvement schools.

The 4% raise represents the largest salary increase for Jefferson County Public Schools teachers in about 15 years, according to Berlin. She has talked with teachers who see the pay increase as "a monetary validation of the hard work that they've been doing."

"We all know that this is not as much as teachers need right now with inflation or how much they deserve based on the amount of work that they put in all the time helping kids, but they felt that this was a a good step of progress from the district in their compensation," Berlin said.

The district’s new choice zone, which encompasses neighborhoods in and near Louisville’s West End and central business district, is an integral part of a comprehensive student assignment overhaul passed unanimously by the board June 1. Families living in those neighborhoods will choose between a new west Louisville middle school and the Academy @ Shawnee or another pairing of middle and high schools based on their addresses for their children.

The student assignment overhaul includes investments in choice zone schools worth $12 million annually for resources and supports like smaller class sizes, more mental health counselors and afterschool learning programs.

Superintendent Marty Pollio also pushed extra pay for teachers working in schools inside the district’s choice zone as part of the district’s investment in the student assignment plan.

Teachers working in the choice zone schools and accelerated improvement schools, referred to as “enhanced support schools” in the district’s agreement with JCTA, would get stipends worth $8,000 during the 2023-24 school year.

Each year a teacher continues to work in an enhanced support school, their stipend would increase by 1.5% until their 20th year in such schools. The agreement calls for the stipend to remain flat at that point until they hit their 25th year in enhanced support schools, when their stipend would hit $14,000 per year.

Teachers who leave enhanced support schools would lose their stipends, and those who exit voluntarily would have their stipend levels reset if they return to enhanced support schools, according to the agreement. Teachers who involuntarily leave enhanced support schools can return to the same stipend level if they return, the agreement says.

JCPS also agreed to work on reducing the need for enhanced support school teachers to fill in for absences and vacancies and to provide mental health supports to staff in those schools, according to the agreement.

Based on experiences from other school districts across the country, Berlin expects the extra pay for teachers working in enhanced support schools will do more to retain staff than attract newcomers.

"I do know that the the members who are at those enhanced support schools in JCPS who have talked to me about it have felt like it was much needed for them because of the expectations that are placed on them by their building administration and the needs of their kids," she said.

The $1,000 continuity bonus will be paid in $500 installments on Nov. 25 and May 26, the agreement says.

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