COEUR d’ALENE — Teachers, bus drivers, classroom aides, food service workers, custodians and other Coeur d’Alene Public School employees will receive a 6 percent pay increase if a contract agreement is approved.

It’s believed to be the district’s largest single-year pay increase in at least three decades, district spokesman Scott Maben said.

The Coeur d’Alene Education Association, representing certified employees, and district negotiators, representing the Board of Trustees, reached the tentative agreement during a daylong negotiations session Tuesday. If approved by CEA membership and the board, the new contract will take effect July 1.

The agreement includes a 6 percent salary increase for certified staff as well as a pay raise of 6 percent for classified employees. Administrators would receive a 4 percent salary increase. Most of the funding for the raises will come from the two-year maintenance and operations levy that voters approved in March. The levy included $2.5 million a year to improve pay for teachers and other employees.

Negotiators agreed to maintain the same level of cost-sharing for health insurance premiums. The district pays 68 percent of an employee’s family plan. Next year’s premiums are due to rise 6.5 percent.

“We are grateful for this community’s deep support of education and their commitment to help see us through growth and improvement on behalf of children,” Coeur d’Alene Superintendent Dr. Steven Cook said.

CEA President Bruce Twitchell thanked the negotiation team for its transparency and collaborative spirit.

“We would also like to thank the board and the community for developing and approving additional levy support specifically for employee salaries,” he said.

Lead negotiator Scott Traverse credited the swiftness of the process to the interest-based bargaining technique that was implemented last year. He said this method is "far, far better" than the positional bargaining used before. Positional bargaining is adversarial and geared toward mistrust; the new approach allows both sides to work together, he said.

"It was like we'd found the Holy Grail and were able to sit down in these budget meetings with the district," he said.

Traverse said both sides were simply honest about the 6 percent increase: Staff would be thrilled about it, and the district could afford it.

"I have been teaching for 24 years, and the biggest raise we had gotten at that point was early in my career we might have gotten 5 [percent]," he said. "I believe in 1990 they got 6, but we’re looking at 30 years ago. This was a big one."

He said it was important to note that the process started in October. By February or March, the school board had stepped up in support of using levy funds for salaries and the district was transparent about using some of those funds for that purpose.

"I feel like one of the reasons they did that is because we get along now," Traverse said, adding that part of the advantage to the new bargaining process is a good relationship between the negotiating sides.

Coeur d'Alene School District mom Missy Brum has two children who have graduated from the district and one who is still a junior. She has been a part of negotiations in the past, so she knows how tough things used to be.

"They've been very heated and very back-and-forth," she said.

As for the largest raise in 30 years? "I think it's fantastic," she said. "It's about time somebody's got a raise. We're losing teachers left and right to different states."

Some of the district’s current teachers have taught her children since they were in elementary school, so she knows first-hand the lengths they'll go for their students.

"There’s quite a few who are still in the system who spend all their own money for the kids to be successful and for them to get a 6 percent raise — they deserve it. It’s about time."

Cook said he is most proud of the community’s recognition of education’s importance.

"I'm just very grateful for this community support of public education and recognition of teachers who work so hard for our kids," he said. "I’m very excited we were able to get this done in one day and looking forward to a great working relationship in the future with the union."