School, teachers discussing contract

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 24, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Contract negotiations between the Bemidji School Board and the district's teachers are progressing in a positive manner and both parties have kept professional attitudes throughout the process, according to Superintendent Rollie Morud.

The two sides began meeting in late May and have had several meetings to date, mostly to discuss contract language items, he said Tuesday in an interview. Most recently, the board's negotiations committee met with the teachers' lead negotiators Monday to discuss preparation time for elementary teachers. And he said several other similar discussions, one being about a new severance package that would benefit both the district and the teachers, have taken place.

As for financial issues, he said those would be discussed later, but he did not have an idea as to when.

Both Morud and Bemidji Education Association President Mary Lou Brandvik said it is too early to tell when negotiations would be completed. However, Brandvik said she did not expect the negotiations to end early.

Morud, who is taking part in his first full contract negotiations as Bemidji's superintendent, said in the past the district was fined if it had not settled with the teachers by Jan. 15, but the recent state Legislature did away with that law. Now, there is no mandatory date by which the contracts must be signed.

"(The process) is not adversarial in any way," Brandvik said. "But I don't think it's going to be done early."

The district's negotiations with its other employees, including custodians, secretaries and assistants, bus drivers and mechanics, food service staff and building principals, have not yet begun. Those negotiations traditionally follow settlements with the teachers, Morud said.