BOISE — School administrators say lean economic times means Boise teachers will not see pay raises for at least three years.

Under an agreement reached Thursday by the school board and the teachers' union, the educators will not get a pay hike for the first time since 1985.

"We don't have the money," said Vickie Simmons, a school district negotiator.

The School Board and Boise Education Association agreed to a new three-year contract running into 2006. Teachers ratified the contract with 89 percent approval.

Boise School District ranks second in the state, behind Blaine County, for average teacher pay. The average salary in the Boise district is $46,000. While districtwide raises are on hold, about 42 percent of the district's 1,300 teachers will receive increases for additional experience and post-graduate work in the 2003-04 school year.

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But the district made no guarantee to fund those increases in the remaining two years of the contract. The cost of paying for them is about $1.5 million a year.

The Legislature this year backed off funding of automatic increases for years of experience that go to about 48 percent of the instructors statewide. Legislators say it is a way to control the rising statewide education budget.

Boise School District has lost millions in revenues over the past couple of years as student enrollment dropped.

District officials cut more than 70 staff positions for next year in reaction to dwindling numbers of students and dollars.

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