Aspen School District strikes deal with union

Aspen School District teachers will see a raise despite the district’s ongoing budget challenges. 

The Aspen Education Association, the local educator’s union, reached a tentative agreement with the district Monday to raise teachers’ base wage by 2.4%, as well as increase salaries for experienced positions, according to a press release. 

“Although all parties had hoped for a higher percentage increase for staff this agreement reflects the challenging financial situation the district faces,” the parties state in the release. 

Aspen School District teachers will see a raise in base pay from $52,750 to $54,000. Mary Rodino, assistant superintendent of business and operations, expects that will change the district’s average teacher salary from $76,800 to just over $80,000.

Aspen Education Association President Marnie White said she is pleased to have come to the agreement given the district’s financial challenges. 

“We all acknowledge, I think on the district side and the union side, that more would obviously be preferable, especially with the rate of inflation,” White said. “But this is what we could come to an agreement on given the district’s financial concerns.”

The district expects to lose $5 million in the next several years due to the state’s New Public School Finance Formula, which prioritizes districts with a lower cost of living. The district also saw a drop in its financial reserves from $8.1 million to $2.8 million between the 2017/18 and 2022/23 school years. The challenges are compounded as the district is in one of the most expensive places to live in the state.

“Tharyn (Mulberry) has made no secret of the fact that since we do have the highest cost of living in the state, that our teachers and staff should be the highest paid in the state,” White said of the district superintendent’s approach to the challenges. “We’re a long ways away from that.”

The Pitkin County Planning and Zoning Commission found that the county’s cost of living is 95% higher than the rest of Colorado with a wage of $148,512 required for a family of four to adequately live in the county. 

White added that state funding for public schools across the state in general is low.

“The fact is that Colorado does not adequately fund education,” White said, “and until that changes, we’re going to continue to be in situations across the state where districts would like to pay teachers more, and there simply isn’t the money to do it.”

Similar sized resort communities also have a teacher base pay between $50,000 and $60,000. In the 2024/25 school year, the Telluride School District paid a base salary of $51,589, Steamboat Springs School District paid $53,500, Summit School District paid $54,000, and Roaring Fork School District paid $54,000.

The Aspen School District salary increases come as the district agreed to a net loss of eleven full-time staff positions through attrition, seven of which are teaching positions. The attrition cuts allowed the district to make room for the salary increases, Human Resources Director Amy Littlejohn told The Aspen Times last week.

Apart from salary increases, the Aspen Education Association and the district came to various other agreements Monday.

This includes changes to three items in last year’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The parties are increasing the payout from  $3,000 to $4,000 for those who decide to waive the district’s insurance. That comes as the district experiences a 12% insurance increase going into next school year. 

The groups agreed to provide 10-days vacation time to year-round educational support professionals in the first year of employment and 15 days after their first 12 months on the job. They set an accrual cap of 30 days per yer.

The agreement must still be ratified by the educator’s union and members of the district’s school board before it is official.

Aspen School District Superintendent Tharyn Mulberry said reaching an agreement with the union has come more easily this spring than in years past, in part due to the cooperation of the two groups with the District Expense-Cutting Task Force.

“I’d like to really thank the members of the negotiations team for all the hard work they put in in making this process transparent and effective,” Mulberry said.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.