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Schools

St. Michael-Albertville Teacher Contract Talks Headed to Mediation

Unable to find a workable solution on their own, the St. Michael-Albertville Teachers and the ISD 885 negotiations team have decided to bring in a mediator to find common ground for a new, two-year contract.

Not quite half of Minnesota school districts have settled their teacher contracts for the next two years, and is among the 176 districts still in negotiations.

After failing to reach a contract agreement on their own, the two parties in the school district's negotiations have called for the assistance of a mediator to help resolve issues regarding teacher salaries, insurance benefits and other language items. Mediation began on Tuesday of this week, and another session is scheduled for next week.

The teachers’ negotiating team is made up of one teacher from each of the district’s eight buildings, led by teacher Matt Rooker. The district’s team includes Superintendent Dr. James Behle, three school board members and a team of administrators.

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Behle said that both sides have negotiated in good faith and that negotiations have been “amicable and productive."

 “The goal of the district is to balance a contract that attracts and retains quality teachers with the other priorities, such as class size, technology and staff development,” Behle stated in a press release given to Patch Wednesday, Feb. 9.

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For the teachers' team, Rooker said they share the same concerns of attracting and retaining quality teachers, and they seek a contract that “reflects the tradition of excellence for which St. Michael-Albertville schools are known.”

St. Michael-Albertville is indicative of a statewide issue.

In the past, negotiations were completed before a Jan. 15 deadline. However, after the 2011 Minnesota Legislature repealed that guidline, more teachers are finding themselves working without settled contracts. Two years ago, with the deadline in place, only 18 of the 338 total contracts remained unsettled at this point, according to the Minnesota teacher’s union, Education Minnesota.

The January deadline was put in place in 1989, but has been repealed three times during that period.

 “The average improvement to the salary schedule is 0.9 percent in the first year and 1.04 percent in the second year,” noted Chris Williams, press secretary for Education Minnesota. These numbers are up slightly from the record low increases in the last round of contracts two years ago.

About 7 percent of this year’s settled contracts include a zero percent increase in one or both the years, and Education Minnesota said salary increases have lagged behind inflation for six of the last seven years. The union’s president, Tom Dooher, blamed the state’s broken education funding system and the Legislature’s failure to fix it.

“You can’t say you’re solving problems when you’re only delaying or avoiding them,” said Dooher. “Sooner or later, the gimmicks have to give way to real, long term solutions.”

District contract discussions and meetings are closed to public, as outlined by Minnesota Statute.

 

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