Negotiations 2025

On Thursday, May 22, your DTA negotiations team met with District representatives Alvie Cater, Brian Schwanz, Kristel Fulcher, and Sam Ruff, and reached a tentative agreement on a contract for the 2025-26 school year. You may view specific language changes in the Tentative Agreement 2025-26 document posted below.  Please look for information about the ratification vote in your school e-mail soon.

The following is a summary of changes to the Professional Negotiated Agreement and other changes considered but not adopted:

Increasing Compensation: All cells on the salary schedule will increase by 1.5% plus an additional $385 and step movement. The average raise, including step and column movement, is 4.38%. The District will also pay for horizontal column movement for qualifying employees and an estimated 10% increase to individual employee health insurance premiums. The salary schedule will also extend three rows to Step 33 in order to incorporate individuals who are “off” the salary schedule. Individuals who remain “off” the salary schedule will receive an increase of an average of 4.38%, depending on their current step.

The extension of the salary schedule did not fully implement the recommendation of the Salary Schedule Committee to extend the salary schedule to 40 steps because the estimated cost to do so was approximately $128,000 – significantly more than the $50,000 estimated by the Salary Schedule Committee at the time of its recommendation. Both sides seek to phase in an extension of the salary schedule in future years.

For changes to specific cells and new salary schedules, please see the Tentative Agreement 2025-26, Tentative Salary Schedule 2025-26, and Tentative Supplemental Salary Schedule 2025-26 below.

Increasing Supplemental Salaries:  The tentative agreement incorporates some – but not all – recommendations of the Supplemental Salary Committee. All cells on the supplemental salary schedule will increase by 3% plus step movement.  In addition, we have added the following supplemental positions: 

• Orchestra (Category 9)
• HS Asst. Musical Specialist (Category 11)
• HS Asst. Musical Tech (Category 11)
• HS Instrumental Music (2-day extended contract)
• HS Asst. Band (2-day extended contract)

Recommendations of the Supplemental Salary Committee to move existing positions to new categories are not incorporated.

Changing Horizontal Movement Deadline: The tentative agreement moves the date by which a Professional Employee must request horizontal movement from September 1 to August 15, however official documentation is not due until September 1. This compromise allows the payroll department more time to process requests while still allowing Professional Employees taking summer classes time to secure transcripts, even if those transcripts are not available by August 15. DTA further proposed that horizontal movement be allowed at a second window in December or once per year at a time of the Professional Employee’s choice. Those proposals are not incorporated in the tentative agreement but may be considered in future negotiations.

Adopting Due Process: The Board of Education agreed to modify existing language to make the decision of a hearing officer “final,” thereby reestablishing due process protection and binding arbitration that the Kansas state legislature stripped from teachers eleven years ago. The Board of Education communicated in a statement that it was “reinforcing its deep respect for the teaching profession” and sending “a clear signal that it values transparency, fairness, and the voices of those who shape our students’ futures every day.” Per Kansas statute, the ruling of the hearing officer can be appealed by either party to a district court.

Maintaining Third School Event or Activity Outside the School Day:  Although DTA proposed reducing the number of required activities outside the contract day from three to two, the language in the tentative agreement remains unchanged, requiring Professional Employees to participate in three activities outside the contract day for a maximum of eight hours. 

More Flex Teacher Workdays: For the 2025-26 school year, the tentative agreement expands the number of workdays on which “flexibility with respect to locations and working will be supported” from once per semester to once per quarter. Thus, teachers who choose to do so will be able to work from home on October 17, 2025; January 2, 2026; March 23, 2026; and May 22, 2026.

Expanding Tuition Reimbursement: The tentative agreement extends the definition of expenses tuition reimbursement will cover to include fees for preparatory classes or tests for a District-required endorsement, licensure, or accreditation. The deadline to submit tuition reimbursement requests will move from June 15 to July 15.

Modifying Disciplinary Procedures Language: The tentative agreement replaces “paid administrative leave” with “suspension with pay” among possible disciplinary actions. The change in language reflects both sides’ belief that administrative leave should not be punitive.

Updating Military Leave: The tentative agreement replaces “Military Leave” with “Uniformed Service Leave” to make contract language align with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, as amended by Congress.

Pooling Leave for Spouses. DTA proposed allowing spouses who both work for USD 232 to effectively “pool” their leave to give those families greater flexibility in how they might use that leave, subject to the limitations of the Family Medical Leave Act. Both sides agreed that the idea requires further study, so it is not incorporated in the tentative agreement.

Thank you to all members of the bargaining unit who followed the proceedings on YouTube and supported us in person. 

We would also like to thank our DTA members for their membership. The right to collective bargaining is only guaranteed by law if a majority of our certified employees are members of the De Soto Teachers’ Association. Simply put, without your membership, there would be no negotiations process, and we would be forced to accept whatever terms the Board of Education would choose to offer. 

Thank you for your support and interest in the negotiations process!

Sincerely,

DTA Negotiations Team