Omaha- Omaha Public Schools teachers are exhausted after teaching through the pandemic and needed more incentive to teach through two months of summer school, according to the union representing the district’s teachers.

Robert Miller, president of the Omaha Education Association, said Thursday that his association repeatedly tried to get OPS to raise the summer school rate of pay up from $28.50, which is less than what some teachers are regularly paid.

“They’ve gone above and beyond what anyone has done in the past,” Miller said of teachers this year. “In order to feel valued, the district needed to step up and offer some incentive.”

Approximately 8,600 elementary students had signed up to attend summer school in June and July. All of the elementary students will be allowed to attend in June.

Two school board members asked whether pay for teachers could be increased for working summer school. Board Vice President Jane Erdenberger encouraged district officials to negotiate or give a signing bonus because she said OPS owed it to the teachers and it would help staff the huge undertaking with people who are happy to be there. Charles Wakefield, the district’s chief human resources officer, said at the time that pay for summer school is a negotiated item in teachers’ contracts and that the district would have to negotiate with the OEA.

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