D91 teachers ratify 2025-2026 agreement; financial stipends included
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IDAHO FALLS — Weeks after the start of the school year in the Idaho Falls School District 91, and after months of back-and-forth negotiation, the Idaho Falls Education Association ratified a new employment agreement for the current school year on Wednesday.
This is the second time this year that members of the teachers’ union have gathered at Taylorview Middle School to vote on an employment agreement. Members of the IFEA voted against the previous proposal, citing dissatisfaction with the negotiation process, losing financial stipends and concerns over losing teachers’ rights.
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IFEA member Jake Snarr told EastIdahoNews.com that the one-time payment and the leadership stipends were the major reasons that its members cited for rejecting the last contract. The one-time payment, under last year’s contract, was a single payment given to full-time and part-time employees in November.
The one-time payments did see a reduction compared to the contract last year, where full-time employees will be given $200, and part-time employees will get $100.
The leadership stipends are paid to teachers who perform extra tasks on top of their teaching duties. Snarr said these can be running district programs such as the sixth-grade track meet or the rendezvous or serving as heads of departments.
Under the new agreement, the stipends brought back.
“That’s a big deal because that also affects classified staff, even our bus drivers and kitchen workers and everybody across the district,” Snarr said.
However, Snarr said that at the start of the school year, an email went out stating that the District 91 Board of Trustees would distribute this fund. While it is up to the board to issue the money from the general fund, Snarr said it was a problem, as it did not come from negotiations.
“This has been a proposal on the table multiple times throughout the summer, and they have said, ‘No, no, no, stop asking, we don’t have the money,'” Snarr said. “Then for them to come out a couple of weeks later and say, ‘Here you go. It was our idea,’ is inappropriate.”
Snarr said this was a step out of line because through the collective bargaining process, both the IFEA and District 91 come to the table to work on these ideas together.
“The power that we have together is not just to say, ‘We want that money.’ It’s to come to the table and bring that power to the table and make sure that that gets in writing, so that way it cannot be taken away from you again,” Snarr said.
During the meeting, Snarr presented a graph that shows both the contract that was rejected in August and the new agreement and how much it’ll cost the district.
According to the graph, the contract proposed in August would have cost the district $56,083,777, which is an increase of $1,317,070 from the 2024-2025 contract.
Much of the increase stemmed from changes within the Legislature that increased the minimums for teachers on the salary schedule.
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Looking at the changes for the new agreement, Article 12, which focuses on coaches and teachers of extracurricular activities, there was an increase of $500 to the base, bringing it to $36,822. Snarr said this was done to accommodate the need for extra coaches, assistants and teachers to monitor the buses separating students by biological sex.
“Now there’s more demand, more hands on attention that you’re giving to your students on the bus as you travel to competitions or games or other events,” Snarr said.
The inclusion of one-time payments, leadership stipends, and other increases results in a total of $56,676,538 for the new agreement, an increase of $600,000 from the previous year.
While the IFEA members agreed with the proposal for this school year, many of its members still had concerns that were not addressed, specifically on teachers losing their voice during board meetings.
Under the new agreement, language was removed that involved IFEA Board Reports no longer on the Board of Trustees’ agenda. However, it is still part of the board’s policy, meaning it is placed on the agenda, but it no longer has a dedicated portion to be read aloud during the board’s meetings.
Some of the questions asked during the meeting revolved around concerns on plans that may remove the policy by the board in the near future.
Snarr said he hasn’t seen anything or indication that it might be the plan.
IFEA President Jess Watrous told EastIdahoNews.com that although she reads the report during the public minutes, her goal is to ensure that the report is still within the public record.
“We still want it to be public, and teacher voices matter,” Watrous said.
Although she said she hoped to have language included to strengthen teachers’ voice within the new agreement, she is proud of the work done by the members of IFEA and approving the new agreement.
“We fight to make sure that our students are getting the best education possible, so supporting our teachers means supporting our students,” Watrous said.