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Thursday, September 02, 2010
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| 1/21/2010 9:36:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | North Branch, Chisago Lakes teacher settlements ratified
Staff
The deadline for all state school district teacher contracts was Friday, Jan. 15 at midnight, and North Branch's settlement was ratified with just hours to spare. The Chisago Lakes Schools teacher contracts were ratified by the School Board Jan. 11.
The School Board Chair in the course of the regular North Branch Board meeting Jan. 14 expressed what she described as the Board's "disappointment" that the teachers' union voted down, two days earlier, what the administration "thought" was an acceptable offer.
Dona Yetter, teachers' union rep, told the School Board during public forum that the union was prepared to meet anytime, day or night, so North Branch could avoid an estimated $100,000 state fine if the Jan. 15 deadline wasn't met.
That's apparently what happened. By the following day the School Board called an emergency meeting for 4:30 p.m. to ratify a contract which the teachers' union had voted to accept an hour or so before. The School Board vote was 4-2 to accept the terms.
Due to the day-off (Martin Luther King Monday), additional details of the contract were not available for press deadline. The preliminary information is that there is a freeze on wage hikes for year one of the 2009-2011 contract. In the second year teachers will be compensated for "steps and lanes" pay but the dollar amount of impact to the district was not released.
Also, "teachers at the top steps" get a stipend equal to 1.45 percent of their salary, according to an email from the district's communications office. The number of teachers and the budget impact for this was also unavailable.
In total, North Branch estimates contract costs to be a 1.6 percent increase over the expired two-year contract.
Chisago Lakes contract details
BY JEFF NORTON
At the first meeting of the new year, the Chisago Lakes School Board put the Master Agreement for the next two years into the record book.
Although negotiations were finished close to the deadline, both the board and Chisago Lakes Education Minnesota agreed that it was a fairly smooth process.
"There was good, open dialogue in our discussion," Board chairman Mark Leigh said. "I was very happy with the mediation."
Most of the 55-page master agreement remained the same as last year, with just a few minor matters that needed updating. There was, however, one big item usually at the center of negotiations: teachers compensation
In the two-year agreement, it's stated that teachers will receive a 1.9 percent increase in salary this year, equaling $293,099 total and a 3.65 percent increase in salary next year, for a total of $574,022.
The total amount of money for teacher raises in the next two years requires $867,121. The teachers got a lane advancement this year, and another next year. As part of the agreement, they get a half of a step this year, and no step advancements on the scale next year.
There was no change in extra curricular activity fees.
Board member Lori Berg added that the negotiations were driven strictly by economics this year.
Director of Business Services Heide Miller said the raises were in the middle of the pack as far as metro schools go.
Also, as part of the master agreement, the number of teacher duty days this year is 184 days. If there is an instance where a teacher works more than 184 days, they will be paid their basic daily rate of pay.
In other news, each member of the board stood pat in their board positions and committees. There was unanimous support to leave each member in their respective spots. Leigh remained board chairman, Berg the vice chair, Lynn Johnson board clerk, Wade Carlson the treasurer.
The one slight change was the introduction of an Aquatics Committee aimed at taking a closer look at the aquatics program with Ellen Heath and Heidi Miller. Leigh assumed that post.
The yearly audit came back clean and mostly in line with the norm, according to Abdo, Eick and Meyers partner Brad Falteysek, who performed the audit. Falteysek said he performs audits for about seven other schools and numerous charter schools and that the CL district was "about the same as most of my audits, as far as I can see."
McLoughlin added, "We have clean books this year, and I appreciate everyone's effort."
The board decided to submit an application for the national Race to the Top program, which is part of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan. Only 15 states are awarded the grants, and Chisago Lakes, if Minnesota is awarded, would receive $800,000 over four years for staff development. There were some concerns about the program, enough so that the Minnesota Board of Education doesn't fully support the program yet, but it's clearly stated that if there is a provision that schools don't like the program, they can withdraw their application.
The board thought it best to get the application in before the deadline, and revisit the topic. If something comes up that is unsatisfactory, they could essentially end their bid.
The board also settled the meeting schedule for 2010, as well as wrapping up any loose ends from 2009. Small things such as approval of existing policies, official depositories, the school board's official newspaper, board reimbursement, and substitute pay all remained the same.
Supt. McLoughlin read an e-mail update from Pat Collins on Project Independence. Just before Christmas, Collins learned that the Minnesota Student Energy Project out of Rochester provided a $20,000 grant to help build the solar panels. They also received a $5,000 grant from the Clean Energy Resource Team,
The grants bring the total up to $64,247, about $10,000 short of the $74,000 goal.
The Rotary club is donating proceeds from the radar run during Festival of the Lakes next weekend, and the students involved still have about 60 Project Independence shirts to sell. "I was starting to question for a while whether we could pull this whole thing off," Collins said in the e-mail. "These grants were vitally important to this project and this puts us back on track to hopefully complete our project by April 22."
The board also appointed a new selection committee to fill the middle school principal position. The standard group of eight was expanded to nine to include what the board hoped would be High School principal Dave Ertl, who works closely with the middle school principal.
The board also chose two representatives in the hiring process, Berg and Carlson.
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