By Attorney Emily Ellingson
On March 27, 2024, Governor Reynolds signed House File 2612 into law which, among other things, established new minimum salaries for teachers. Under this new law, effective July 1, 2024, the salaries for new teachers must be at least $47,500, and the salaries for teachers with at least 12 years of experience must be at least $60,000.(1) Effective July 1, 2025, the salaries for new teachers must be at least $50,000, and the salaries for teachers with at least 12 years of experience must be $62,000. The legislature will provide additional funding allocations through Teacher Salary Supplement funds to assist school districts in reaching these minimum salaries.
As school districts move forward with implementing changes necessary to ensure these minimum salary requirements are met, it is important to consider how these changes impact collective bargaining with teacher associations. School districts should consider the following:
1. Consider collective bargaining process. The process for making changes to incorporate in these minimum salaries will look different depending on if a school district is in the middle of a multi-year settlement agreement, has already finalized a collective bargaining agreement for the 2024-2025 school year, is currently negotiating for next school year, or has not yet started negotiating for the upcoming school year.
2. Compare FY24 TSS and FY25 TSS that is generated based upon the updated TSS District Cost Per Pupil (DCCP). School districts should understand their current TSS funding allocation (for the 2023-2024 school year) and compare this to what they are projected to receive as TSS with updated DCCP for the 2024-2025 school year to consider how much additional funding they will receive.
3. Confirm current TSS distribution amongst teaching staff. Across the state, school districts have used various calculations to distribute TSS amounts to teaching staff. TSS can be paid as a flat-dollar payment, as an indexed payment that follows the index of the salary schedule, or as a combination of these options. Understanding current TSS distribution will help school districts weigh all options for distributing FY25 TSS going forward.
4. Determine how much FY25 TSS is needed to get teachers to the minimum salary figures. School districts must review their individual teacher wages to consider how much each individual teacher will receive to meet the minimum salary requirements. Under the new law, the minimum salary requirements apply to new teachers and to teachers who have at least 12 years of experience teaching in Iowa schools. School districts should closely review the teaching history of their staff, as reflected on the BEDS data, to ensure each staff member’s years of experience is correctly calculated. As a reminder, a teacher’s years of teaching experience may not correlate directly to that teacher’s “step” placement on a school district’s salary schedule.
5. Consider how salary schedule may change. For those school districts that utilize a salary schedule outlining the wages for every teacher in the district, the district should consider how to modify the salary schedule moving forward. Some school districts may elect to maintain their historical salary schedule and add additional line items within the salary schedule to identify FY25 TSS money that is used to fund minimum salary amounts and remaining FY25 TSS money that is distributed throughout the salary schedule. Other school districts may opt to transition to an alternative salary schedule. Whatever route a school district chooses the traditional salary schedule’s index system (i.e., 4% increases moving across the lanes in the schedule and 4% increases moving down the steps in the schedule) will likely change. This is true because once a specific dollar amount is added to certain categories to ensure the teachers at that placement meet the minimum salary requirements, the final salary number reflected on the salary schedule for each category is no longer indexed uniformly.
6. Calculate remaining FY25 TSS after moving teachers to minimum salary requirements and evaluate options for distributing remaining amounts to teachers. School districts are still required to distribute all TSS funds to the district’s teachers each year. With all of the changes occurring to teacher wages, considering how to allocate any FY25 TSS amounts remaining after moving teachers to the minimum salary amounts will be important. Some school districts may elect to distribute remaining FY25 TSS to teachers using the same distribution method that was previously used for TSS (as considered in 3 above). Other school districts may elect to change the distribution method and distribute FY25 TSS differently than they previously distributed TSS.
7. Communicate with the teacher association regarding the FY25 TSS distribution. School districts will need to consider how to communicate and collaborate with the teachers or, if applicable, the teacher association regarding the distribution of any FY25 TSS amounts remaining after moving teachers to the minimum salary amounts. Since changes to Iowa’s collective bargaining law went into effect in 2017, many school districts have characterized TSS payments as “wages” and treated TSS distribution as a permissive topic of bargaining. Other school districts have continued to negotiate TSS distributions, even as a permissive topic of bargaining. Going forward, school districts will need to determine how they will treat distribution of the FY25 TSS money and utilize the collective bargaining process, if appropriate, to finalize any FY25 TSS distribution amounts.
8. Remember that the teacher contract termination notification deadline of April 30 still applies. As school districts evaluate the impact of changes to TSS funding, including whether layoffs are necessary, it is important to remember that any plans regarding staffing changes for the 2024-2025 school year must be determined before April 30. Under Iowa law, school districts must notify teachers on or before April 30 if the district anticipates terminating the teacher’s teaching contract at the end of this school year. The process leading up to the notification is different if the teacher is a probationary teacher or non-probationary teacher under Iowa law; however, the April 30 deadline applies to all teachers.
We recognize that the salary schedules and TSS distribution calculation methods vary greatly between school districts across the state. Therefore, we advise school districts to work closely with their negotiations team and school attorney to navigate the changes that need to be made to individual teaching salaries and how these changes impact collective bargaining. If you have questions about how these changes might impact your school district, you may contact one of our attorneys experienced in collective bargaining and labor law for assistance.
(1) Based upon the information currently available, it does not appear these minimum salary requirements apply to nurses or other non-teaching positions. Additionally, nothing in the law appears to limit the new teacher minimums to full-time teachers and, thus, a prorated minimum salary amount for part-time teachers is likely required. However, it appears funding for part-time teachers may not be received by school districts as the Department of Management has confirmed it did not include part-time teachers in the allocation calculation. More guidance may be needed on this potential unfunded mandate.
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