“We counted up the votes and it did pass by a large number,” Mays told the Journal-News immediately after the vote, declining to produce a specific tally.
Teachers told the Journal-News the vote resulted in 645 votes, with 591 teachers voting in favor of the contract and 54 teachers voting against it.
Mays said the parking lot jammed with vehicle was only partial evidence of the “huge turnout of teachers” the vote produced.
“It is the largest turnout that I have ever seen,” said Mays, who has been a teacher in the district for 20 years, the past five as president of its teachers union.
The teachers union offered a 40-minute presentation and question-and-answer session for those who wished to participate, said Mays, who declined to detail what was negotiated as part of the re-opened contract.
Teachers told the Journal-News following the vote that the contract includes a completely new salary schedule based on increments or a cost-of-living adjustment of 1.97 percent increase. Then, in the second year, there is a 2 percent increase and 2 percent the following year, but that third year is conditional based on district money.
Teachers also said that under the extended contract, those who work 120 days would receive a $650 pay bonus in November for the next three school years.
The contract has no increase in health care contributions, teachers said.
Negotiations started March 23 on re-opened sections of the current three-year contract, which runs from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2017.
That contract included a provision to reopen negotiations for the second and third years on the issues of salary, insurance, evaluations, and expiring memorandums of understanding.
The tentative teacher contract resulting from this year’s negotiations was announced last week.
Now that teachers have approved the contract, Lakota’s school board likely will vote it during its regularly scheduled meeting next Tuesday evening, according to Randy Oppenheimer, the district’s spokesman.
The contract and the wages and benefits it negotiates represents roughly 73 percent of Lakota’s annual operating budget of approximately $150 million, Oppenheimer said.
District officials said they do not comment on a contract until a board vote occurs.
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