Cass Lake-Bena Schools and CLEA, the bargaining unit representing teachers, held the third negotiations session on June 26, 2025. The district did not agree to requests for increases to the curriculum rate of pay (from $35 to $50/hour) as the current rate at CLBS is consistent with the rate most other districts offer. The district also declined the request to amend the hours of service language to restrict prep periods to one uninterrupted block, and to require that prep for non-teaching contract members be designated in the master schedule.
In response to the request for an increase of 3.75% to all cells in the salary schedule, the district counter offered a 1% increase year 1 and a 1% increase year 2, and allowing step increases for all eligible teachers. Business Manager Heidi Hagen shared that in year one of the contract, step increases alone amounted to $351,000 (without any increase to cells) and that amounted to a 2.71% increase to salaries. CLEA representatives met privately to discuss, and then stated that the costing model that they were using did not show the same dollar amount increase as the one used by the District. Parties agreed that the costing models needed to match. The district business manager will meet with CLEA negotiators on July 10 to compare models and align the numbers.
There was additional discussion about language that would allow a teacher to pay down their student loans, and apply that payment to their 403B match portion. CLEA will revise the proposed language and send it to the superintendent, who will share the language with the district’s benefits manager company for legal review. There was also discussion about the district’s proposal to restrict teachers who are placed on corrective action/improvement plans from earning step increases/longevity pay while placed on the corrective action plan. No agreement was reached.
The next negotiations meeting is scheduled for July 10, 2025 at 4:00 pm in high school classroom 435.