The 1,430 members of the Federal Way Educational Association (FWEA), the labor group representing teachers and certified staff district wide, will be seeing a slight increase in wages, in addition to gaining some respite from an ever-mounting workload.

At the regularly scheduled meeting of the school board last Tuesday, the board unanimously approved the new three-year contract, which will take effect September 1, 2006.

"Besides the compensation gains, we have some pretty innovative language on workload relief [in the new contract], " said Shannon Rasmussen, president of the Federal Way Educational Association.

Now when teachers attend mandatory professional development seminars, they will have a specific amount of time set aside to implement what they've learned, and any new tasks asked of teachers will be evaluated before set in place, explained Rasmussen.

In order to comply with No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, teachers and staff face new requirements each year and are spending an escalating amount of their time fulfilling the act's accountability provisions.

The new contract also provides for an increase in material reimbursement for teachers, from $150 to $175 per school year.

In addition to the 3.3 percent cost-of-living increase provided by the state, the district will increase teacher (K-12) and certified staff pay 0.25 the first year, 0.75 the second year, and 1.5 the third year.

"We will be cutting programs next year, hence the smaller raise then. We hope our financial picture will improve the year after that," said Chuck Christensen, executive director of human resources.

Christensen and Rasmussen said that the collective bargaining talks were cordial and both parties felt the agreement to be fair. At a meeting on April 18, 84% of FWEA members ratified the new contract.