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Both the association and district recognize the challenges that inflation and the cost of living, failed levies and an outdated state funding formula pose in reaching an agreement.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

Daily Inter Lake: Kalispell Public Schools, teachers union pause contract negotiations