The Caesar Rodney School District finalizes a pay raise for its teacher's union.
The new union contract comes months after a referendum in the district passed, producing an additional $6.1 million dollars for Caesar Rodney schools. The deal will bump the district’s contribution to teacher salaries 14-to-25 percent over the next four years, making their teachers the highest paid in Kent County.
Jared Lelito is the president for Caesar Rodney’s Education Association and a 7th grade special education math teacher. Originally from New York, Lelito says he moved to Delaware due to an oversaturated teachers market.
Now, he says he is facing the opposite issue.
“My co-teacher moved on to a different position in a different school district at Thanksgiving 2025- and we’ve had zero applicants for the job.” he told DPM.
The contract boosts the Caesar Rodney School District’s contributions to teacher wages by 14% to 25% over the course of the next four years. Paraprofessionals will see an 8% to 10% increase.
In Delaware, districts only cover a portion of teacher pay - 30%, with the state footing the remaining 70%.
Lelito says the agreement comes months after the community approved a tax increase referendum, generating an additional 6.1 million dollars in revenue.
“No-one wants to say ‘hey, can you take another $300 to $400 from me every year. But thankfully, respectfully, gratefully, the community came through and gave us the opportunity to increase our salaries on the local portion. We’re just happy and proud and excited to hopefully keep some of our great teachers and recruit some new teachers in the future.” he said.
The increase marks Caesar Rodney’s first successful referendum since 2015.
With the pay raise, Lelito says that may change, attracting more strong teachers to the district - something that’s important as a teacher and a parent with a son attending Caesar Rodney schools.
“The building doesn’t matter, the air conditioning doesn’t matter, the books don’t matter. The best person- the best human- in the room is going to make the best students.”
The new agreement is approved a year before the current contract was set to expire in 2027- the contract goes into effect July 1st. Educators will see their first increase in pay September 18th.
