WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — More than 5,000 DCPS educators could soon see a raise — and more. On Wednesday, the Washington Teachers’ union reached a tentative agreement with the city after months of back and forth.
“With a 12 percent increase in salary over four years and a 4 percent retention bonus, this agreement provides our educators with competitive raises that will help the District to retain and attract the best talent for our schools,” the city and union said in a joint statement
Backpay is also expected as part of the agreement.
“Given inflation and all the struggles that we went through during the pandemic, I do think retroactive pay and a raise is fair,” teacher Laura Fuchs said.
Fuchs has been a high school history teacher and union member since 2007. She is waiting to see the fine print in the contract.
Fuchs said she hopes it will also keep many protections for teachers.
“There’s always a give and take, that’s fair, but we’re not paying too steep a price for this increase and we’ll only know once we see what it actually says,” she said.