PORT ANGELES – Port Angeles teachers will not go on strike as the new school year begins.

Teachers overwhelmingly approved a new pay schedule Wednesday afternoon.

The school district has agreed to add about one and half million dollars to teachers’ pay locally. The union had wanted nearly twice that, but came to an agreement after lengthy negotiations between the union and administrators this week. But Marty Brewer, the District’s new Superintendent, says the new contract sets up some funding challenges in the near future.

The agreement bumps first-year teachers to $47-thousand dollars a year. The top of the pay scale will be at about $93-thousand dollars. That’s a 9.1% increase top to bottom.

There is no agreement in place yet for the district’s paraeducators, but Brewer says that is still in negotiation.

Money for the teacher raises comes after the state recalculated payments under the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision, which determined the state was not fully paying for general education as mandated in the state constitution.

However, the funding model created large disparities between different districts depending on size and geography.