Pasco schools and teachers reach tentative deal

The Pasco School District has reached a tentative agreement with the Pasco teachers union on pay raises for this year.

It was the last school district in the area to agree on a new contract before classes begin next week.

A state mediator started working in Pasco on Friday to help school district and teachers union leaders settle their differences.

The officials planned to keep negotiating into the weekend.

Union members were notified late Saturday that a tentative deal was reached at 12:25 p.m.

Details were not released pending a general membership meeting yet to be scheduled. That’s when the union’s 1,200 members will approve or reject the agreement.

Fall classes were expected to start Tuesday, even if a deal wasn’t finalized by then.

The current one-year contract doesn’t expire until Friday.

In 2015, a teachers strike in Pasco delayed school by nine days. In that case, lack of curriculum and materials was a top issue.

Like numerous other teachers unions across the state, the Pasco union was negotiating over salaries, following a $2 billion infusion statewide for educator pay spurred by an overhaul of the state education funding system.

The Washington Education Association has urged local unions to push for double-digit raises.

Several in the Tri-Cities achieved that, from 12.5 percent over two years in Columbia-Burbank to 22 percent over three years in Richland.

Some districts, like Kennewick, were in the midst of existing contract terms and only bargained this summer over pay.

The Pasco district and union reached a tentative agreement earlier this summer, but it wasn’t ratified by the union.