No agreement in sight
It appeared Tuesday that the Brainerd School District and its teachers' union will not reach a contract agreement by the midnight Friday deadline.
As a result, the district will lose $200,000 in state appropriations, a penalty imposed by state statute.
Superintendent Steve Razidlo said in an interview that Education Minnesota Brainerd, the district's teachers' union, contacted him Tuesday morning with the results of a union membership meeting Monday night. He said union representatives gave an informational presentation to a "significant number of their membership" Monday. After that presentation, Razidlo said union members took a procedural vote on whether to suspend their constitution and bylaws in order to vote by Friday on the information presented.
How teacher contracts stand at lakes area school districts
Minnesota school districts have until 11:59 p.m. Friday to settle their teacher contracts or face a financial penalty from the state. Here's a look at which area school districts have settled their 2009-10 teacher contracts and those that haven't:
AITKIN: The school board accepted a ratified teachers' contract at the Dec. 21 school board meeting.
BRAINERD: A settlement has not been reached. No negotiation sessions have been scheduled.
CROSBY-IRONTON: The negotiating teams have reached a tentative agreement and teachers were to vote on it Tuesday.
LITTLE FALLS: The school board accepted a ratified teachers' contract Monday night.
PIERZ: The school board accepted a ratified teachers' contract Monday night.
PILLAGER: The school board accepted a ratified teachers' contract in September.
PINE RIVER-BACKUS: No agreement yet; teachers will be voting on Wednesday.
STAPLES-MOTLEY: The school board approved the tentative agreement in December, contingent on a union membership vote Tuesday night.
WADENA-DEER CREEK: There is no settlement. Negotiations continue.
WALKER-HACKENSACK-AKELEY: Negotiators were in mediation Tuesday and teachers were expected to take an agreement to a vote Thursday with a special board meeting planned at 4 p.m. Friday to potentially approve a ratified contract.
VERNDALE: The district has a ratified teachers' contract.
Razidlo said this procedural vote did not pass. Razidlo explained that an affirmative vote Monday night would have allowed the union to change its procedures and continue the process toward reaching a settlement agreement by Friday's deadline.
The school board Personnel Committee is planning to meet in closed session at 5:30 p.m. Friday to discuss negotiation strategies and any new developments and a special school board meeting has been scheduled to follow at 6 p.m. to approve a contract if a settlement is reached.
Razidlo said there are no negotiation sessions scheduled this week.
"So we will have no agreement on Friday evening," Razidlo said.
Tim Edinger, EMB president, declined to comment on the negotiations. Instead, Edinger released the followwing statement on behalf of the union:
"Education Minnesota Brainerd recognizes that negotiations pertaining to the 2009-11 teacher contract have been discussed in the newspaper. However, EMB has long believed that contracts should not be negotiated in the newspaper, and takes pride in the fact that we have never entered into dialogue in the newspaper as part of a negotiations strategy.
"We are saddened by the fact that we are one of at least five employee groups within our school district without a current contract to date. So much light has been cast on our negotiations process that it seems to have minimized the fact that many of our colleagues who work in this school district have been without a contract for about two years."
Other teachers reached Tuesday who are familiar with the negotiations also declined comment and referred questions to Edinger.
School districts are not penalized for failing to reach collective bargaining agreements with their other unions. This state statute penalizes school districts only when an agreement has not been reached with teachers.
Board chair Kent Montgomery could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Board member Ruth Nelson declined to comment.
"That's pretty sad if we get penalized," said board member Reed Campbell. "That just comes out of our budget and we have to make arrangements for that. Hopefully things will turn around. Hopefully we'll have some good news (by Friday). If not, it will be pretty disappointing if we can't come to an agreement."
The Washington Educational Services Building in Brainerd, captured as the sun set Tuesday, has served the past several months as the site for closed sessions of the Brainerd School Board Personnel Committee as it has contemplated union negotiations strategy. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls» Purchase reprints of this photo.
"I'm hopeful but my concern is that we're down to the wire," board member Tom Haglin said of reaching a settlement by the deadline. "We'll have to wait and see."
Board member Jim Hunt said he couldn't comment on the negotiations process since he is a new board member and not on the negotiations team. However, Hunt said he's disappointed that the district may lose out on $200,000 because no deal was reached.
"To put it mildly, it's pretty disappointing," said Hunt. "$200,000 is four teachers in my view. It's really a disappointment. I don't know the ins and outs of what the teachers are dealing with. I think board members would say they put a fair offer out there but obviously from a teachers' standpoint it is not a fair offer. It's kind of like throwing money away and of course nobody has that kind of money to do that. I was really hoping things would get resolved and we could settle this by Friday night but obviously that is not going to happen.
"It's a disappointment. I know how hard teachers work, I know what they do," added Hunt. "I know many of them are very good people. But the other side of the coin is we know what's out there in the world, the economy and how things are. It's a tough, tough situation for everybody."
Razidlo said it's unknown how many school districts in the state have yet to settle teacher contracts, although he's heard numbers as high as 100 districts.
The school board legislative committee will meet with area lawmakers at noon Jan. 28 at Washington Educational Services Building in Brainerd. An agenda item includes discussion of the teacher settlement penalty.
"We are one of the districts working feverishly to try to beat the deadline and we want to talk to our lawmakers about what our assessment is and whether it's fair on both sides of the table," said Razidlo.
Razidlo said there is no leeway for the district if it can't reach a contract agreement by 11:59 p.m. Friday. The state requires a collectively bargained agreement to be signed by the district and union by that time or the district's state appropriations will be reduced by $200,000.
The district last month settled with its administrative union for no wage increases over the next two years and has yet to reach contract agreements with its six non-certified union groups.
The district has 437 teachers. Steve Lund, director of business services, previously has noted that a 1 percent wage increase for all union groups would cost the district an extra $370,000 per year, equivalent to adding 7.3 full-time equivalent teachers to the staff.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.