The Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams continued their negotiations of just a salary schedule through the use of a mediator on Wednesday, January 30, 2019.   As the result of this session the two parties were able to reach a tentative agreement on a salary schedule for the 2018-2019 school year. If/when the tentative agreement is ratified by a vote of the PSE membership and by the Wapato School Board of Directors, district employees represented by the PSE will receive retro compensation from September 1, 2018, at the newly agreed to salary schedule rate. 

In addition, the bargaining teams, through the use of a mediator, also reached a tentative agreement for an additional year of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) beginning September 1, 2019 and ending August 31, 2020.  The tentative agreement for the additional year includes an increase in the salary schedule and language that each party can submit up to three collective bargaining agreement (CBA) openers, not including the salary schedule, to be negotiated beginning this Spring/Summer (2019).  Any changes that are agreed to as a result of the bargaining of the three openers later this year will be applicable to the additional year of the contract, which is from September 1, 2019 through August 31, 2020. 

The tentative agreements outlined above will not be made formal until ratified by both the District’s PSE membership and the Wapato School Board of Directors.  However, the WSD bargaining team and District leadership would like to thank the PSE bargaining team and the mediator for their hard work and commitment to the process of reaching an agreement that is fair and equitable for all involved.