The St. Paul Public Schools Board has approved new contract agreements with the teachers’ union for 2025 to 2027.

The contract covers licensed staff, educational assistants, and school and community service professionals, with 3,287 full-time employees included in the bargaining unit. Union and district officials reached tentative agreements in early August after several months of negotiations and union members voted to ratify them later that month, ahead of the current school year.

The agreement — approved by the school board at a Tuesday night meeting — was the first in more than 20 years to be reached ahead of a new school year and without mediation. It is retroactive to July 1, 2025.

“It is certainly our hope that this will be an ongoing trend as we move forward,” said Patricia Pratt-Cook, SPPS executive chief of Human resources, at Tuesday’s meeting.

Pay increases

Under the agreement, licensed staff, such as teachers, receive a $1,820 pay bump effective July 1, 2025, and an additional $180 effective Jan. 1. Educational Assistants receive a $1.30 per hour pay bump and School and Community Service Professionals receive a 10.5% increase, both effective July 1, 2025.

Effective July 1, 2026, as part of the agreement’s two-year cycle, teachers and School and Community Service Professionals also will receive a 2% pay bump and Educational Assistants will receive a 2.5% increase. All wage increases are in addition to increases related to experience and training or education.

The current starting salary for licensed staff — teachers — with a bachelor’s degree is $54,788 and will be $59,756 for the 2026 to 2027 school year, according to union officials. The highest salary for licensed staff with a bachelor’s degree for the current school year is $80,423. For the 2026 to 2027 school year the highest level is $82,031.

A teacher at the highest experience level with a doctorate would earn $113,627 in the 2026 to 2027 school year, plus a stipend for each year beyond 20 years of teaching.

The agreement also includes a 4% increase to district contributions to health insurance premiums in 2026 for all three groups and a 6% increase in 2027.

Other highlights

According to union officials, highlights of the contracts include preserving the district’s restorative practices program, providing financial gains for all employee units, offsetting impacts of health insurance increases, providing additional protections for LGBTQIA+ students and staff, ensuring student access to education regardless of immigration status and maintaining current class size parameters.

The district’s restorative practices program, which focuses on student behavior, is part of a partnership with the University of Minnesota. Through that partnership, SPPS and the teachers’ union St. Paul Federation of Educators “piloted a formal project to implement high-quality, whole school restorative practices in twelve pilot sites” starting in 2016, according to the university.

As part of additional protections for LGBTQIA+ students and staff, educators cannot be disciplined for using student’s preferred name or pronouns, according to union spokesperson Megan Boldt Murphy.

Current class size parameters cap class sizes at anywhere from 20 students to 40 students, depending on the grade level and the school’s percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

The agreement also addresses artificial intelligence, stating, “The District shall not eliminate bargaining unit members as an immediate and foreseeable result of adopting or implementing generative AI technologies.”

“The school district is pleased that the Board has approved the new contracts for our largest bargaining group, SPFE,” said Dr. Stacie Stanley, the district superintendent, in a statement Tuesday. “This agreement will further strengthen our ability to retain and attract high-quality educators and support staff to serve our 33,000 students. I want to thank our school board and SPFE leadership for the collaboration and partnership in reaching this agreement as we work together to make SPPS the best we can be.”

St. Paul teachers went on strike for four days in 2020, their second strike in history, and almost went on strike in 2018 and 2022. A strike also was averted last year after an agreement was reached in March.

Levy referendum

The union will now shift its focus to supporting the district’s November levy referendum.

The district is asking voters to approve a levy hike through a November referendum to boost operating funds and head off what officials say would be $37 million in budget cuts if the levy is not approved.

The November ballot question will ask voters to increase the district’s general revenue by $1,073 per pupil for 10 years, beginning with taxes payable in 2026. The result will cost the average St. Paul homeowner — with the median home valued at $289,200 — $309 per year or $26 per month. The 10-year tax is subject to increase with inflation.

Voters approved similar referendums in 2018, 2012 and 2006. The 2018 levy gave the district $1,180 per student, or $18.6 million per year plus inflation, in new revenue.

The school board approved a 2026 budget of $1 billion in June, with an estimated $51.1 million budget shortfall. That shortfall is to be covered by $35.5 million in reserve funds and $15.6 million in budget cuts and new revenue under the budget.

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