by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
The teachers in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District now have a new two-year contract, which was approved unanimously by the school board at its Sept. 16 meeting.
The teachers have already agreed to accept the contract.
Salaries for this school year (2013-14) will increase about 2 percent, and for the next year they will increase about 3 percent.
A beginning teacher with a bachelor’s degree will make an average of $33,800 the first year and $35,000 in the second year. A teacher at the highest level with a master’s degree and 20 years of teaching experience will make about $69,200 in the first year of the contract and $71,500 the second year of the contract.
There are 250 teachers in the school district. The total salary costs, with lane-change increases and extracurricular-activities costs added, will be $13.610 million in the current school year, an increase of $658,000 over the past school year. For 2014-15, the costs will be $14.937 million or a $661,000 increase over this year’s costs.
The teachers’ salaries, when a variety of benefits is included, will cost the district an additional $1.7 million over the two-year life of the contract. Benefits include such items as health care, life insurance and retirement-investment matches.
Total teacher-related costs, including salaries and benefits, will total $19.957 million, an increase of $936,000 from last year. For the next year, the total cost will be $20.780 million, an increase of $822,000 from this year. Those totals equal about a 4.9-percent increase in the first year of the contract and a 4.1-percent increase in the second contract year.
Teachers will work an average of 182 days in this school year and next, just as they did in the past year.
