Lawrence school board members voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve new contracts with raises for the district’s certified staff and education support professionals.
Under the new agreement for the 2026-27 contracts, teacher base salaries will rise to $51,000, with guaranteed increases of at least $3,000 for teachers across all salary levels, plus vertical and horizontal movement on the salary matrix. Education support professionals will also see a starting pay of $20 per hour, with increases across all pay levels.
Superintendent Jeanice Swift called the agreement a milestone worth celebrating, saying it reflected hundreds of hours of work.
“I’m proud of the work, and I mean every word of this, the courageous work to face the organizational challenges inherent in our current times,” Swift said. “We’ve worked hard to realign the organization so that we can prioritize resources in two endeavors: one, our classrooms for teaching and learning and opportunities for our children, and two, competitive compensation for staff.”
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Certified staff reported that 60% of members voted, with 88% voting yes. ESP leaders said 53% of members voted, and 77% approved the deal.
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The agreements also add Indigenous Peoples Day as a paid holiday and create new committee structures to review special education issues and ESP training and advancement opportunities. They also expanded safety and injury protections for both groups, including reimbursement for damaged personal medical devices in some incidents.
Board members described the contract as a result of extensive collaboration and an unusually productive bargaining cycle.
“When we started this season, we really wanted to hit 50, and the fact that we were able to do more than that was really something special,” board member Matt Lancaster said.
For employees, the approval brought relief after a long negotiation process.
“I feel relieved, for sure,” LEA President Emerson Hoffzales said. “Being able to get one step closer to that living wage and more competitive salaries for our staff is really important.”
They said it was nice to be done with negotiation in May, adding that the early timeline gives staff time to plan before the school year ends and helps families and employees know what to expect for the fall.
Josh Spradlin, co-lead negotiator for certified negotiations, said the district focused much of its attention on the front end of the salary matrix with new teacher pay, but there is still work to be done for veteran teachers.
“There are still disparities when you look at competitive wages from other districts,” Spradlin said. “It’s one of those things, you just have to do it step by step.”
District leaders said the contracts were negotiated alongside a major change in health benefits, with the district moving from a fully insured medical plan to a self-funded model with stop-loss coverage in response to a projected 32% increase in premiums.
Staff members who want to keep the same level of coverage will have to pay to cover the increased cost. A new employer-paid core PPO plan will be offered to full-time employees. More information about that is available at this link.
The board also approved a 3% increase to the administrative salary pool, totaling about $202,000 for the district. The teacher salary pool will increase by about $4.62 million, and the ESP salary pool will increase about $2.48 million.
According to a December memo from Swift the district employs 57 administrators, about 885 certified staff members; and about 644 ESPs.
Based on those figures, the average 2026-27 salary for administrators is projected to be about $121,700; about $68,000 for full-time teachers and other certified personnel, and about $36,300 for classified personnel.
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Courtney Lane (she/her), reporting correspondent, has worked with The Lawrence Times since April 2026. Originally from Arkansas, she’s a graduate of KU’s Journalism school, where she worked as a reporter, opinion section editor, and eventually editor-in-chief for The Kansan.
Read her work for the Times at this link, and see her photography for the Times at this link.
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