For the first time in its 16-year history, the union that represents classified employees of the Bainbridge Island School District and the district are going into mediation.

Negotiations over a new contract have stalled.

“Our bargaining team has spent more than a year preparing to negotiate with the district, but we are at an impasse,” Mike McCloud, president of the Bainbridge Island Educational Support Professional Association, said at the Dec. 10 school board meeting.

He was joined by more than 60 colleagues, dressed in black to express their frustration with the provisions in their current contract, which expired on Aug. 31 of this year.

Bargaining teams from the district and BIESPA have met for 11 negotiation sessions since late last spring, with the primary dispute centered around compensation. District officials, however, have said inadequate state funding makes it difficult to address the salary concerns of classified staff.

“When we took our jobs with the district, we never expected to get rich,” McCloud said. “We love our kids and are committed to their education. But we also know that we are not paid what we are worth.

“That’s not just me saying that,” he added, referencing a June 2012 report from the Compensation Technical Work Group, which found that classified staff across Washington earned significantly less than their private sector counterparts —anywhere from 5.5 to 27.6 percent, depending on the position.

“Throughout the Great Recession, we have been patient,” McCloud continued. “We realize that many of these financial hardships are the result of factors that none of us could control.

“But now, after years of patience, with the economy improving and the state funding increasing, we think it’s more important to take care of all district employees, the people who are the lifeblood of our mission, than to add to an already healthy fund balance,” he said.

Classified staff have endured a series of losses over the past six years, starting with negligible cost-of-living adjustments and surging medical insurance premiums, McCloud explained.

“Bus drivers’ hours have been cut; custodial staff have been cut while square footage has increased; para-educators have lost planning and consultation time,” he said. “Most of us are no longer included in staff meetings as we once were. The jobs of all staff are made more difficult by the increasingly dire shortage of substitutes. The landscapes that groundskeepers maintain have become more complex and challenging. And, as this crisis has steadily increased, our take-home pay has shrunk, year by year.”

Eight others stood up to make the case to the board that classified staff deserve a living wage.

Ailene Isaf, a para-educator at Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School, recounted the demands of her role and the limited pay that accompanies it.

As a member of the Sakai opening team, she starts her day early, securing the grounds while also welcoming the community. She runs a before-school homework club and, after hours of helping students with long division, organization and behavioral issues, she’s hosting an after-school homework club, too.

Technically, it ends at 4 p.m., but there are plenty of days when Isaf stays later, sometimes an hour over, because parents are running late and she doesn’t want to leave children sitting in a dark office by themselves with nobody else in the building.

She doesn’t get paid for that time, but even if she did, it wouldn’t amount to much, she said.

“I do all this on about what a 12-year-old gets paid to babysit,” Isaf said, eliciting a big “Amen!” from the crowd.

“Unless he or she worked past midnight and then they’d beat me hands-down, believe me.”

Add to that the fact that there’s no hope for improvement and the picture is pretty bleak. Isaf is already at the top of her pay scale.

“I will never make a penny more than what I make now because I’ve been working here for 17 years,” she said.

Considering that many of these roles are also part-time, it’s no surprise that some classified staff have to take on second jobs to support themselves and their families.

Marcia Millican, a special education para-professional at Ordway Elementary, said that out of 24 classified employees at Ordway, she knows of at least 10 that also work outside the district.

Some of them hoped to show up to the meeting, but couldn’t make it, Millican explained, because they were working.

And then there’s the testimony of staff who owe the district money. Stephani Mar, an attendance secretary at Bainbridge High — now into her 20th year with the district — brought her June pay stubs to show the board. She’s elected to be paid on a 10-month basis, meaning health insurance costs for July and August are taken out of her June paycheck, which, accordingly, tends to be the lowest of the year.

Since 2010, she’s watched her take-home pay drop from $771 to $690 to $430 to $301. And then, last June, she actually owed the district money. Just a dollar, but Mar finds the trend alarming considering she hasn’t made any changes in the last five years.

“My deductions, my benefits, my health coverage —none of that has changed,” Mar explained. “I have done nothing to increase them.”

Kathleen Abell, a special education parapro at Ordway, found herself in a similar boat.

“I work at three schools, and last year, I had to change my medical benefits because I was getting negative paychecks,” she said. “I’ve worked for the district for 20 years.”

Associate Superintendent Peter Bang-Knudsen said later he couldn’t speak to Mar or Abell’s situations specifically, but noted that employees make their own choices when it comes to deductions.

“Depending on how many deductions you are taking, it can vary what your actual net pay is,” he explained.

He added that rising insurance costs might also account for a diminishing paycheck.

The fundamental challenge with raising classified compensation, Bang-Knudsen said, is that the district is underfunded by the state.

“Forty-eight percent of our classified positions are not funded by the state — they’re funded completely locally,” he said.

That’s true for 14 percent of certificated positions, too, he said.

“We’re going to give every state-funded employee a 3 percent cost of living adjustment. Well, since we have 48 percent of our classified staff that are not funded by the state, we have to come up with that 3 percent COLA out of our local levy. That’s one of those fundamental unfairness pieces and one of those things that I think make it so difficult.”

The district also has other priorities to consider, Bang-Knudsen added.

“We’re certainly interested in paying our employees more, but we also have to be fiscally prudent and maintain a solid budget that supports all our students.”

Still, classified salaries for the district are up to par with those elsewhere on the Peninsula, he said.

“It’s our goal to pay competitive salaries compared to surrounding districts. And we think that overall we have competitive salaries for a classified association.”

Bang-Knudsen is optimistic a mutual agreement will be found with the help of a mediator from the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission.

“We’ve, overall, got a really positive relationship with our organization,” he said. “I think this was a particularly challenging year but I’m optimistic that with a mediator’s help we will be able to reach a positive outcome.”