Hermantown Star

LSC alpine meet

The Hermantown alpine ski teams had a strong showing at the Lake Superior Conference meet Thursday (Jan. 24) at Mont du Lac, just south of Duluth. Check back for results.

District, teachers settle contract

After months of negotiations that left both sides frustrated, the Hermantown School Board approved the 2007-09 teachers’ contract Tuesday night.

It took the board just three minutes to approve the contract, which the union had approved earlier in the day. All five members present voted in favor of the contract. Board member Jim Knapp was unable to attend the special meeting.

Todd Aanonsen, who served on the board’s negotiating committee, said the vote from the teachers was not unanimous, but majority were in favor of it. He said he believed over 90 voted for it with around 13 voting “no”.

Superintendent Brad Johnson stated the increase in the teachers’ salary will be 2.8 percent for each of the two years of the contract. In a Jan. 15 report by Education Minnesota, it stated that salary schedule improvements averaged about 2.49 percent and 2.38 percent for each of the two contract years among districts in the state.

Hermantown was one of 150 districts in the state that still had not settled a contract by early January.
Along with the salary increase, the contract will increase health insurance preminums by $30 per month ($585 total) the first year and $25 per month ($610 total) in the second year.

Other details in the contract included increases in the severance packages, with those under the new plan receiving an increase of $1,000 and those under the old plan receiving three more days.

Staff will have three personal leave days per year without having to state a specific reason for the leave.
Under the new contract, a first-year teacher receives $31,779. A teacher with 11 years experience and a master’s degree plus 45 credits will be compensated $62.932.

Johnson said even though the contract talks were heated at times, the board of education does value the teachers in the district.

No one from the teachers’ union attended the special meeting Tuesday.