Both the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board and the teachers in the district had few complaints and much praise for the new collective bargaining agreement with the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association (HSEA, the union representing teachers in the district) Thursday evening.

The starting teachers’ salary under this agreement, if ratified, would be $48,500 a year, up from $44,074.  Interim HSE Superintendent Matt Kegley expressed his belief that the starting salary is the highest in Hamilton County.  “We are really excited about understanding and knowing that these salaries are super-competitive with our competition in the district and hope that continues to folks wanting to come to HSE,” said Kegley.

A teacher with a Bachelor’s Degree and 36 additional credit hours can earn $91,801 at the top of the scale with 19 or more years of teaching experience.  The only teachers not receiving a pay raise in this contract would be those after 2 years of teaching rated “ineffective” or “improvement necessary,” but HSEA President Abby Taylor told members of the school board only a handful of teachers in the district are in this situation.

The pact is the product of two full days bargaining and one additional day cleaning up contract language.  Taylor says the teacher ratification process is underway and she is receiving much positive feedback from teachers.  Once teachers ratify, the school board is scheduled to hold a ratification vote November 8th.  Board members had questions but appeared to be generally positive about the tentative agreement.

A public hearing was offered but no one chose to speak.  This is a one-year contract covering the 2023-2024 school year.

You can view the PowerPoint presentation to the board at this link.