School District Presents Salary Proposals
The Wolf Point School District proposed two salary schedules to the Wolf Point Education Association during their bargaining meeting on Tuesday, April 26.
The Plan A package offers a 2 percent increase to the base salary for 2022-2023, a 1 percent increase for 2023-2024 and a 1 percent increase for the 2023-2024 school year.
The teachers’ union’s salary proposal made in March was a 10 percent increase to the base salary for 2022-2023, a 5 percent increase to the base salary for 2023-2024 and a 5 percent increase to the base salary for 2024-2025.
The Plan B package proposed by the Wolf Point School District features increasing the base salary to $38,000, an increase of 15.14 percent, for the 2022-2023 school year, increasing the base salary to $39,000 for the 2023-2024 school year and increasing the base salary to $40,000 for the 2024-2025 school year.
Plan B calls for two additional days of work for teachers. Superintendent Loverty Erickson said those days will be used for professional development instruction with the goal of increasing students’ test scores.
Erickson said Plan B would make Wolf Point’s base salary the highest for the Montana’s nine reservation schools and 19 Class B schools of similar size.
School officials said they looked at a lot of data prior to making that proposal.
“It’s a way to attract new teachers and it’s fiscally responsible as well,” board chair Linda L. Hansen said.
Representatives of the Wolf Point Education Association argued that the Plan B proposal doesn’t provide suitable increases for the school district’s more experienced teachers.
Teachers are also concerned that the amount of pay percent increases isn’t consistent across the board in Plan B.
The Wolf Point Education Association plans to submit a new salary proposal at the next meeting on Tuesday, May 10.
The parties disagreed about a proposed language change from the Wolf Point School District. The School District wished to add the wording, “The trustees may nonrenew the employment of a nontenure teacher at the conclusion of the school fiscal year with or without cause.”
Teachers explained the benefits of having a written plan for improvement made by administrators to help instructors get better.
Teachers expressed concern that trustees might remove teachers because of personal bias or conflicts.
“We want teachers to stay here,” Wolf Point Education Association member Erin Loendorf said. Erickson said three legal parties have advised the school district to remove some of the current language.
“If you guys don’t like it, don’t do that,” Erickson said of agreeing on the changed language.
