New contract gives Springfield teachers 4% annual raise for 2 years

The Springfield Public Schools board unanimously approved a new two-year contract with the district’s teachers union, the Springfield Education Association, at its Feb. 9 meeting.

The contract previously had been ratified by 92% of the union’s roughly 550 members, said Jonathan Gault, the union president.

It includes a 4% salary increase, also known as a cost-of-living adjustment, for each of the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years, and a $25 increase in the district’s monthly insurance contribution.

“From the District’s perspective, the agreement reflects a shared commitment to supporting staff, maintaining clarity in operations, and keeping student learning at the center of District decision making,” said Brian Richardson, Springfield Public School’s communications director, in a statement Feb. 12.

Springfield’s teacher salary adjustments put the district slightly behind its neighbors. Bethel School District recently approved a contract with a 4.5% salary increase per year for three years and Eugene School District 4J’s 2025 three-year contract included a 5% salary increase per year.

Springfield Education Association bargaining chair Maria Sayre-Heiss said while bargaining team members weren’t fully satisfied with the cost-of-living raise, they didn’t want to lose more colleagues to midyear layoffs.

The district decided last year, when adopting its 2025-26 budget, to not include any cost-of-living adjustment for teachers. That led to a midyear decision to lay off 27 teachers last month in order to accommodate the 4% increase, which is retroactive for the current school year.

Sayre-Heiss said the only way the district could fund increased teacher pay was with additional layoffs and the personal financial strain of a strike felt like a lot to put on members already reeling from the midyear changes.

“We were close enough to neighboring districts on the (cost-of-living adjustment) that we didn’t want to put our members through more trauma,” she said.

The new contract also frees up more prep time during the school day for elementary school teachers. Compared to their previous allotment of 130 minutes a week for prep during school hours, they now have 180 minutes. Teachers will have 45 minutes of prep, four days a week during the school day. They used to attend an “embedded collaboration” meeting twice a week during their school-day prep time. With the new contract, they will be required to attend only one per week during student hours.

Sayre-Heiss also said the new contract has added language laying out more accountability for maintaining teacher conditions including temperature, lighting and airflow and an additional $20 a month that staff can put in a tax-sheltered annuity account, a health savings account or take as extra pay.

“I’m very glad that we’ve reached an agreement,” said Jonathan Light, chair of Springfield Board of Education, in the Feb. 9 meeting. “I’m proud of both sides that we were able to achieve that and looking forward to moving beyond this.”