Strike Averted in Nokomis

NOKOMIS —The Nokomis School Board and the school district’s teachers reached a tentative contract agreement late Tuesday, averting a strike that had been set to begin Thursday.


The teachers union voted to accept the agreement Wednesday night, according to Cheryl Bennett, the union’s president.


Details of the contract will not be made public until after the board approves it Dec. 20, said School Superintendent Scott Doerr.


“It was over money and benefits, like it has been, and the final contract will be released once the ratification process is over,” he said.


The agreement came just hours before the Nokomis Education Association and its 41 teachers had said they’d walk off the job at the Montgomery County district’s two school buildings.


Doerr had said the district would shut down during a strike because most substitutes are retired teachers who probably wouldn’t cross picket lines.


“I’m just glad to see a tentative agreement has been reached and we can go on to do the business of the students,” Doerr said Wednesday.


“Our members as a group, they weren’t ready for a strike,” Bennett said. “You can say you’re ready and you can vote that you’re going to be ready, but when it comes down to it, there’s a lot of work and a lot of pressure.”


Negotiations had been under way for several months. The teachers’ contract expired in mid-August.


The district has about 700 students.


The last scheduled meeting between the union and board took place Monday night and went into the early morning hours Tuesday. No agreement was met, so a second meeting was scheduled Tuesday night that resulted in the tentative agreement.


The school board’s latest publicized offer said no employee would be allowed to move on the salary schedule during the 2011-12 term of the agreement. The following year, employees would be allowed salary steps only for continuing education.


Under that offer, employees with more than 35 years of experience would continue to have their base salaries frozen during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 years, so their base pay would equal that of the 2010-11 school year.


The superintendent of Nokomis schools says a tentative agreement has been reached between teachers and the school board, avoiding a strike that could have started Thursday.