Deadlocked over salaries, Mountain View School District negotiators will head into mediation on Aug. 16.

Union representatives say the district needs to fix a flawed teacher salary schedule, the Lewiston Tribune reported Tuesday.

Teachers received an across-the-board $972 stipend in 2017-18, with the promise that the district would negotiate the salary schedule this year. But as a result, some new employees are making more money than their veteran colleagues, the Tribune reported.

“Our job is to educate the kids, and nobody expects to get rich,” Central Idaho Education Association President Char McKinney told Justyna Tomtas of the Tribune. “We are not in that kind of job, but being reasonable about it and fixing (the salary schedule) is important because it’s flawed.”

July 1 marked the beginning of the budget year for Idaho school districts. Most of the state’s largest districts reached 2018-19 agreements well before July 1.