| Anoka group revives ‘Thriller’ for Red Bull Flugtag crowd |
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The “Back for the First Time” team hauled their flying coffin in a full sized semi truck to reach Harriet Island for the Red Bull event. Submitted photo
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One of the more creative endeavors to hit Minnesota since the milk
carton boat race began some 39 years ago entertained, launched, flew
and ultimately floated as Red Bull brought its Flugtag event to Harriet
Island July 24.
| District 11 negotiates with teachers; rhetoric heats up |
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| Wednesday, 05 December 2007 | |
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Managing editor The rhetoric is heating up but not the pace of negotiations as the Anoka-Hennepin District 11 School Board and its teachers union attempt to reach a new two-year contract agreement. A mediation session is scheduled between the two sides Monday, Dec. 10, but failure to reach a tentative contract at the last mediation session, Nov. 16, brought some 250 Anoka Hennepin Education Minnesota (AHEM) members dressed in red to the Nov. 26 school board meeting to hear Sandra Skaar, AHEM president, read a letter to the school board asking it to get directly involved in the negotiations. No school board members sit on the district’s negotiating team. The board met in closed session during its Nov. 26 meeting to discuss negotiations strategy. The next day, Nov. 27, the district’s 2,900 teachers began a work to rule, meaning they are only working their contract duty hours. Teachers are not coming to school earlier, nor leaving later than spelled out in the contract, according to Skaar. While extracurricular activities are not affected because teachers are paid under separate extra service agreements, Skaar said teachers are no longer volunteering for such activities as PTO events or evening festivals in which they would normally take part, Skaar said. Teachers are anxious to get a new contract in place, especially since the district will be penalized by the state if there is no ratified agreement by Jan. 15, 2008, she said. And with the approaching Christmas and New Year’s holidays, a deal needs to be achieved by Dec. 31 to give the teachers enough time for a ratification vote, Skaar said. According to Paul Cady, District 11 attorney and lead negotiator, failure to reach an agreement with the teachers by Jan. 15 would result in the district losing some $1 million in state revenues - $25 per student. In talks to date on the contract for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years, agreement has been reached on some contract language changes, Skaar said. But the major issues of salary and health/dental insurance remain to be settled, she said. In terms of salary, AHEM is asking for an increase in the ballpark of teacher contract settlements in the metro area and statewide to date - 2.5 percent in each of the two years, Skaar said. To date, the school district’s offer has not been within the AHEM ballpark figure, she said. But she said the school board gave District 11 administrators a 3 percent one-year increase earlier this year, according to Skaar. Cady declined to state how much the district was offering in terms of salary increase because “those discussions belong at the bargaining table, not in public,” he said. But Cady said that the school district’s proposal was competitive with what teachers are getting in other metro area districts “as it always has been.” “We plan to continue to meet and bargain in good faith,” Cady said. Economic issues are the primary focus of the negotiations right now and the school district has to balance being competitive with fiscal responsibility in spending tax dollars, he said. Besides salary, health/dental insurance premiums still have to be settled, according to Skaar. Right now, the school district pays all of the dental premiums for teachers, both single and family, but only the single health insurance premium, Skaar said. Depending on which of the two options teachers choose for family health coverage, they are paying 25 percent of the premium, which amounts to anywhere from $4,000 to $5,000 a year, she said. “We want to maintain what we have,” Skaar said. At the Nov. 16 mediation session, the school district did tentatively agree to continue to pay 100 percent of the single health premium, she said. According to Skaar, administration employees do not have to pay any health or dental insurance premiums. Contract negotiations with the district always seem to be difficult and that is true of all employee groups, Skaar said. The school board needs to get directly involved in the negotiations for a settlement to be reached, which was the tenor of Skaar’s statement at the school board meeting, she said. “There continues to be a problem of communications with the district,” Skaar said. But the teachers are not talking strike. There has not been a strike vote, nor has one been scheduled, she said. “The last thing we want to do is strike,” Skaar said. “No one wins.” Peter Bodley is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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