Sep 08, 2005 - 11:01:31 CDT
Wednesday night the Mandan Education Association rejected the two-year contract proposed by the Mandan School Board by a two-thirds vote.The vote came as a surprise to David Mellen, negotiator for the MEA, and Lynn Wolf, negotiator and president of the school board. On Sept. 1, the two negotiators shook hands in an informal agreement over the new contract the board had proposed, and the teachers applauded them. Over the Labor Day weekend, the teachers studied the proposal, and too many questions surfaced.
"I want this resolved as much as anybody else," Mellen said. "But over the long Labor Day weekend, the teachers looked at the numbers closer and the total money offered and what the district has available. We question whether we are getting accurate numbers or not."
Although Mellen was surprised 111 teachers voted no and 57 voted yes for the two-year contract, he said the teachers aren't holding out for more money; they just have legitimate questions. Some of the 57 teachers who voted yes, voted earlier in the day because they couldn't make the 4 p.m. MEA meeting. If they had attended the meeting, Mellen projected, more would have voted no.
"It's not about greed or being demanding. ... If you would have asked me at noon what my vote was, Iwould have said yes," Mellen said.
After the school board's offer was informally accepted, Wolf said the board doesn't understand the MEA's rejection.
The MEA doesn't believe the board used the Fact Finding Commission's salary schedule and matrix in their proposal. The board said they did use the commission's matrix, as the MEA requested, and inserted the amount of money the board thought the district could afford.
"We are being fiscally responsible to our patrons and to the members of our district," Wolf said.
The additional salary and compensation package offered to the teachers is $564,059, including $437,059 for salary increases; $82,000 for insurance premium increases; co-curricular salary increases of $40,000 and substitute teacher pay increases of $5,000.
According to the board's new salary schedule proposal for the first year of the contract, a teacher with one year of experience would receive a salary of $25,143 and free medical insurance, worth $6,936. This is a salary increase of $2,143 and an insurance increase of $456. The total raise would be $2,599.
A teacher with a bachelor's degree, eleven years of experience, plus 30 hours would have a salary of $32,822. The medical coverage and increase is the same for all teachers. The total raise is $2,113.
Wolf said the board's next step will be a special school board meeting. The board could decide to renegotiate or to impose the contracts on the teachers, but Wolf said the full board needs to make that decision. No meeting date was set.
(Reach reporter Kayla Cogdill at 250-8251 or kayla.cogdill@;bismarcktribune.com.)
Comments are reviewed for taste, tone and language before posting.
Some comments may be used in the Tribune's print edition.
We value and respect your privacy, but The Bismarck Tribune might
disclose certain information to governmental entities if served with subpoena.