AUBURN — The School Committee on Wednesday night unanimously ratified a one-year contract for teachers that gave no increase in base salaries.

The pact does allow step increases of 3 to 3.5 percent.

The contract is $185,143 more than the current one, but $187,000 less than what Superintendent Katy Grondin proposed in her spending plan March 8.

Meanwhile, kitchen workers showed up at the meeting in silent protest that their contract negotiations have broken down and is in fact-finding.

Some 25 workers wore aprons and neon green stickers that read, “Healthy Foods, Healthy Minds. Support the Auburn Food Service Workers.”

They want better pay and health coverage, Bill Reilly, president of the Auburn Education Association, said.

Most work 25 hours a week and are considered full time, he said. “They have no health insurance. The school board is adamant that they don’t want to give them health insurance.”

Excluding crossing guards, the food workers “are the only employees in the School Department that do not have health insurance,” Reilly said. “Even the bus drivers have health insurance.”

Food workers earn between $9.89 and $14.98 an hour.

Vicki Levesque, kitchen manager at Fairview Elementary School, said it’s tough on many who are single, widowed or divorced. “We really need some help,” she said.

Kitchen workers have gone 2½ years without a raise, Levesque said.

The teachers’ contract, approved by 98 percent of teachers, will allow time to work on language that takes into consideration new  “mass customized learning,” or individualized teaching to students, practices now being implemented, Grondin said.

Budget documents show the annual salaries of Auburn teachers range from $29,697 for beginning teachers with a four-year degree to $51,155 and higher for veteran teachers.

Teachers with master’s degrees earn from $33,526 up to $57,697. Twelve Auburn teachers with Ph.D.s earn $62,399.