The compensation agreement between the Livermore teachers union and the school district was unanimously approved by the Board of Education last week.

District staff presented to the board a memorandum of understanding between the Livermore Education Association and the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District at its Feb 21 regular meeting.

The approved agreement includes a 3% ongoing compensation increase for the 2022-23 school year, retroactive to July 1, 2022, which is in addition to the 4% previously negotiated and added to the 2022-23 salary schedule.

The salary schedule also includes an additional 6% ongoing increase for the current school year effective this Wednesday.

For the 2023-24 school year, they will receive an additional 3% starting July 1 with contingency language that could add an increase greater than 3% if additional money is made available through either an increase in revenue or a decrease in expenses.

The union and the district initially reached the tentative agreement in early February after several weeks of back-and-forth negotiations. On Feb. 16, LEA announced that their members had ratified the agreement with 96.5% voting in favor, according to the district staff's report.

District staff said in its report that the approved change to the salary schedule will impact the general fund by an additional estimated $2.5 million for the 2022-23 school year, which accounts for the me-too clause for all other bargaining units and non-represented employees.

Before the new salary schedule, Livermore ranked 14 out of 19 nearby districts including the neighboring cities of Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon. The LEA leadership was concerned that without swift action to improve their compensation, Livermore would have a hard time attracting and retaining educators when the hiring season began.

Under the newly approved salary schedule, LEA leadership said that Livermore will rank sixth out of those 19 districts.