HIGHLIGHTS:

• 1-year agreement

• Base pay remains at $46,000

• Existing pay scale based on a 2.7% increment and placement based on total years of experience is retained.

PAY:

• All teachers who worked at WWS prior to the start of the 2025-2026 will ascend to the next level of the pay scale according to their years of experience (i.e. get their increment).

• One level was added to the BS scale - previously capped at 20, now at 21.

• All teachers who were on MS level 27 last year will receive a $1000 stipend.

• SLPs will now receive credit for previous clinical experience outside of the school setting.

• Teachings possessing the Literacy Endorsement will receive a $150 stipend added to their salary placement - endorsement must be placed on license.

PAYMENT

• December 5th - First payment of new salary rate.

• January 14th - Retroactive Pay  (a one-time additional pay)

LANGUAGE AND OTHER CHANGES:

• PTO (Paid Time Off) - We are transitioning from a system of Sick/Personal days to PTO (Paid Time Off).  Teachers will receive 15 PTO days per school year going forward.  All unused PTO days at the end of the school year will be added to the teacher's accrued sick day balance.  All PTO days must be used before using accrued sick days.  

• Discretionary Leave:  "Where the bargaining unit member has suffered emotional, physical, or mental stress following circumstances/events/occurrences caused by a student, parent, or legal guardian within the scope of employment may take one (1) day of discretionary leave. This day will not be deducted from personal time off days. Approval must come from building administration and Human Resources."

• Additional 2 days added to previous bereavement leave: Power of attorney, executor of estate, sole survivor.

• Teacher of Record Release Time:  "All bargaining unit members who serve as a Special Education Teacher of Record, Speech Language Pathologist, or EL Teacher of Record will be granted 1 day of leave from student supervision duties each grading period to maintain statutory compliance through the completion of IEP documents and coordination of/participation in case conference committees. This day must be communicated in advance with building administration."

• As part of our settlement, we have a verbal agreement with WWS admin to have the WWS Teacher Handbook placed into official school board policy.  The handbook contains provisions related to our working conditions:  discussion, working hours, prep time, required meeting time and activities outside of working hours, evaluation, etc.  Placing the handbook into board policy will, in a sense, make working conditions contractual again after many years.

SUMMARY:

WWS is currently experiencing financial stress due to the effects of SEA1, referendum growth caps, and projected staffing needs as new buildings open in the next few years.  The fact that we are the only HamCo district that had positive student growth (292 new students) and are able to maintain current health insurance premiums for another year made this settlement possible.

Since funding was rather slim for this bargaining session, we were able to negotiate some notable language changes that we hope will go towards helping our teachers maintain a better work/life balance.  We were also able to secure a verbal promise by Admin to make our Teacher Handbook official school board policy.  This win should not be underestimated as it finally restores teacher working conditions into a more clear and concrete form.  The inclusion of items related to working conditions have been prohibited from Master Contracts in Indiana for about a decade now.  Solidifying these working conditions (Discussion, prep time, working hours, evaluation, etc) into official policy is a huge step towards correcting a wrong that was done to teachers by the legislature many years ago.

We all must be aware that passing a new Operating Referendum in November of 2026 is essential to keeping WWS moving forward.  In order to ensure that our starting salary catches up and remains competetifve with our neighboring districts, passing the referendum is a must.  As details about this come out in the coming months, we ask that our WCTA members and WWS teachers help support and reinforce the importance of a successful referendum passage out in our community.

The WCTA Bargaining Team would like to thank the WWS Admin and WWS School Board for working with us towards this settlement in a spirit of full transparency, collaboration, and shared goals.