Nearly 2,500 local teachers may get smaller pay raises than expected in 2026 under a plan proposed by Salem-Keizer School District leaders to avoid layoffs.
School officials on Wednesday proposed to union leaders Wednesday shaving the promised 3.5% raise down to 1.5% next year.
A teacher making $60,000 per year would see a cost of living raise of about $2,100 under the current contract. The district proposal would reduce that raise to $900.
The raises were to kick in July 1, 2026. The union leaders would have to agree to the cut.
Such a move would save about $5.3 million next school year.
Those savings would prevent layoffs later in this school year. The district has not provided an estimate of how many jobs would have to be cut without the pay reduction.
Administrators and supervisors receive the same cost of living increase as teachers, so a cut in pay raises for them would be applied to administrators as well.
District leaders will begin negotiating a new contract with classified employees like bus drivers and classroom assistants early next year that would set any pay increases for 2026.
The proposal comes as Superintendent Andrea Castañeda is trying to rein in district costs that are rising faster than state school funding. She’s set a target of cutting $25 million from planned district spending next school year.
About one quarter of those savings will come from reduced overhead expenses and the district office, she said. District leaders intend to finalize their plan for those cuts in early 2026.
But about 95% of the district’s general fund pays for employees and the vast majority of those people work in schools. The superintendent said that means there are limited options for cuts that don’t impact schools or educators.
“There are no solutions before us that are easy. If there were, we would have exercised them long ago,” Castañeda told the Salem-Keizer School Board on Tuesday.
Right now, the district’s employee costs are expected to rise at least $20 million. That’s because of negotiated pay increases, health insurance costs and pensions for district retirees.
If those increases occur, the district would spend about $640 million per year in its general fund in 2026, while bringing in just $618 million.
That means without cuts, the district would have to dip into its savings to cover its costs in 2026. By 2028, the school district would be out of savings on its current trajectory, according to a forecast from Chief Financial Officer Heidi Sann.
Maraline Ellis, president of the Salem Keizer Education Association, said the union will poll its members over the next few weeks to gauge their reaction to the proposal. But she expects most will favor other options before they’d consider forgoing pay.
“We believe that at the very least it would be fair and reasonable to consider a combination of different approaches,” she said.
Union leaders favor furlough days, when all employees take an unpaid day off.
But Castañeda and school board members have indicated little appetite for furloughs on school days or when teachers are scheduled for training. A single furlough day saves the district about $3 million.
“We just strongly believe that our students need to be in school with our excellent staff,” Castañeda said in an interview.
She said district leaders are willing to consider furloughs on other days, like those dedicated to grading. Ellis said that’s likely to be a non-starter with teachers who use the time to keep up with work.
“I cannot ask my teachers in particular to give up a day dedicated to completion of grading and report cards,” Ellis said.
Ellis said longtime teachers in the district, including her, are reluctant to accept smaller raises than anticipated because of district actions during the Great Recession. That was the last time teachers agreed to forgo pay.
She said after teachers agreed to cut their raises then, the district announced 10% pay increases for administrators. While she didn’t expect district leaders to repeat that mistake, she said administrators should have a pay freeze before teachers are asked to make concessions.
“We’re a long way from having a document that we could give realistic consideration to,” she said.
Ellis and Castañeda say they want to avoid the kind of layoffs imposed in 2024.
Ellis described the current circumstance as “a bad situation that doesn’t have a positive answer.”
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers education, economic development and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade and is a past president of Oregon’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter. Outside of work, you can often find her gardening or with her nose buried in a book.
