‘It means a lot’: LPS teachers get a pay raise

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Lincoln Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved increased compensation for teachers.

Will West, a teacher at Lincoln Public Schools, said this vote is encouraging.

“It means a lot to know that the people that are running the district believe in what we’re doing and want to support us as best they can,” he said.

The Lincoln Education Association and the school board worked together on an agreement that raises compensation for teachers by 4.55%.

That includes increases in wages and the district’s contributions to health insurance, retirement and Social Security.

“We worked really hard on this,” said Deb Rasmussen, the president of the union. “We take what the members tell us, and we go to the table to see what we can do. And we did a really good job this year.”

A first-year teacher gets paid $47,356 a year right now at LPS.

At the start of the 2024-25 school year, they will now make $48,556, exactly $1,200 more.

Something that Rasmussen is really proud of is a quicker timeline for salary increases.

“We want people to get to the highest earnings they can before they’re my age,” she said. “I’m almost 63. Some people now will be able to get to the highest level maybe 20 years quicker than I did.”

West agrees that this will help both attract new teachers and retain those who are already in Lincoln.

“We want to make sure that the teachers we have in the district aren’t leaving, aren’t fleeing to go elsewhere, where they might be able to make a couple hundred, couple thousand dollars more,” he said. “And it’s important because we need the best teachers in Lincoln.”

He said it’s important for teachers to see that the board is prioritizing them.

Other changes included in the agreement include the end of early release for professional learning.

Currently, each Tuesday, high schoolers are released from school early. Middle schoolers and elementary students are released early once a month.

But starting in the next school year, that will be discontinued.

Instead, students will get six more days off of school while staff plan and take part in professional learning.