Under the teacher contracts, they ….

Under the teacher contracts, they have so many hours of curriculum development each summer and are paid a rate of $19.25 per hour for those days. The challenge Sullivan said is that many of the curriculum hours are grant funded and that raising the rate paid for those hours would just mean fewer hours would be available for teachers to use. “We only have so much money to use,” Sullivan said.

During the finance committee meeting held before the regular school board meeting, board member Brian Hallgren asked about the program the district has to reimburse a portion of the cost of college credits and if the district would be better off putting that money toward more summertime curriculum work.

It was noted that in comparison to the cost of the credit hours, the district’s reimbursement is only a fraction of it, and that teachers still receive about a $3,600 pay bump by earning their master’s degree.

Hallgren questioned how many teachers participated in the credit reimbursement versus how many would use the additional curriculum time in the summer and which would benefit students more.

Board members were less willing to give the additional sick days asked for due to staff members having used them for COVID-19. Board member John Zuleger said he could see how teachers could have used their days up especially if they were younger teachers without many banked and had children at home.

Board member Cheryl Wibben disagreed. “That is what sick days are for,” she said. She noted that most private sector jobs are not able to accrue sick days and either use it or lose it.

Teachers receive 12 paid sick days per year and can bank unused days up to 108 days after which point they are paid out at $75 per day for days over that amount. On retirement they are also paid out $75 for any unused sick days.

The complaint, according to Sullivan, is that teachers were forced to use their sick days due to the quarantine orders. “We had some who ran out of sick leave days,” Sullivan said.

Board member Steve Deml said it was late to bring it forward due to COVID, noting that they should have brought that forward for this school year. He noted the district’s numbers for COVID-19 were zero across the board.

“Twelve days of sick leave is a lot of days of sick leave,” Deml said.

In addition to the teacher requests, board members also received a request from support staff employees who work 9 months of the year for the district to implement a longevity incentive for the district to pick up additional percentage of the insurance premium. This category of employee pays 20% of their insurance cost rather than the 10% paid by 12-month support staff and the 11% paid by teachers and administration.

It was noted that there has been a lot of turnover in these positions especially within the first few years.

Another request brought forward was to provide incentives for not taking the district’s health insurance. Finance director Audra Brooks noted there was a percentage of staff, particularly younger staff members who do not take the district’s insurance. She said this is likely due to them still being eligible to be on their parent’s insurance.

Hallgren was very cold to the idea of paying people to not take the insurance saying that they develop a package that they provide to staff to use and saw no reason to pay people not to be on it.

No action was taken on the requests.

Sub pay

Short-term substitute teachers in the Medford school district will get a pay boost next year, but not as big of one as at least one board member wanted.

The administration recommendation which was supported by the finance committee, recommended increasing the current sub pay from $110 per day to $130 per day and that retired teachers who sub will go from earning $128 per day to $148 per day. In addition teachers who give up their prep periods to serve as a substitute will go from earning $16 to earning $20 for that time.

“I think it should go up even more,” said board member Don Everhard. He noted that it is not even $20 per hour at a time when fast food restaurants are paying young people $15 per hour starting out.

“I agree, I would like to pay them more,” Sullivan said, however he noted that they also have to look at their competition. “We are very competitive with Rib Lake, Colby and Abbotsford,” he said.

Everhard said he felt it would be the right thing to raise the $140 per day for general subs and $160 per day for retired teachers who work as substitutes. He said he was not considering what others were paying, but what he felt was right.

Zuleger asked what the financial impact of Everhard’s proposed increase would be. Brooks estimated it would be about $50,000 more than what they are paying now, but would need to go through it to get an exact amount.

“I don’t argue that it could always be more,” Fleegel said.

Zuleger said he was uncomfortable when the increase was to the point of being a whole additional staff member. “This is a whole other person, that is a lot of money,” he said.

In a vote on Everhard’s motion he was the only yes vote. Zuleger then followed up with a motion to go with the administrative recommendation to begin next school year with the higher rates. That motion passed with only Everhard opposed.

Wibben said she would still like to see the numbers for Everhard’s proposal at next month’s board meeting, noting they could reconsider with that information.

In other business, board members:

_ Approved the personnel report with a number of resignations and retirements including SES first grade teacher Peggy Czerniak, middle/high school choir teacher Brooke Zdun, district AV technician Rich Wirz, seventh grade English teacher Christie Wirz, high school choir teacher Cassandra Jablonsky, and high school English teacher William Klinger.

_ Approved a policy change for staff conference to raise the meal expense allowance for people attending out of town conferences to increase it to $75 in total expenses per person attending. Sullivan noted that this is a maximum amount and if the conference or meeting includes meals as part of it the expenses for other meals would be less. He said enforcement of it would be a management issue and that they would deal with it if it happened. “If that happened it would only happen once,” Sullivan said.

_ Reviewed the projected staffing and section needs at each of the buildings. Building principals did not anticipate needing significant changes. At Stetsonville Elementary School, elementary principal Dan Miller projected adding a section back in at kindergarten to have two sections at each grade. Other levels projected minor changes in sizes between grades but no significant changes for staffing. That may change if the district is successful in getting a grant for additional tech ed equipment with principal Jill Lybert noting there is high demand for those classes and the ag classes.