====== Kalispell Public Schools, teachers union pause contract negotiations ======

> Teachers will be paid according to a contract that was set to expire this week after the Kalispell Education Association and Kalispell Public Schools failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement following roughly five months of negotiations. 

> For the 2025-26 school year, the district proposed a 1.5% increase.

> Factoring into negotiations is the school district’s anticipation of a $1.7 million budget shortfall going into the 2024-25 school year.

> Both the association and district recognize the challenges that inflation and the cost of living, failed levies and an outdated state funding formula pose in reaching an agreement.

> The district cut four elementary positions this year through attrition, which means the district didn’t fill positions after people retired or resigned. The district anticipates more reductions next year after a $700,000 high school general fund levy failed in the May school elections. A high school levy of any type hasn’t passed since 2007. 

> "We bargained to receive the average starting wage amongst AA schools and other K-12 districts in the Flathead Valley."

[[https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2024/jun/14/negotiations-paused-between-teachers-union-and-kalispell-public-schools-teachers-will-work-under-expired-contract-until-talks-resume-in-the-fall/|Daily Inter Lake: Kalispell Public Schools, teachers union pause contract negotiations]]