by Penny Mio
editor

The educators at Lake of the Woods may go on strike, and the school could be fined $15,000 if the contract between the teachers’ union and the school district is not finalized by January 15th.
The teachers unanimously rejected the most recent offer by the school district. They then sent a letter requesting another negotiations session. Teachers’ representative Mike Pepera said they found eight dates that worked for their negotiations team and submitted the list to the district. He said that until the school board meeting December 21st they had not heard back from the school district.
Superintendent Steve Wymore said that the submitted dates did not work for the district negotiations committee.
The negotiations discussion ended with Wymore saying they would look at further dates to meet, to try avoid the fine.
There were many people on hand, teachers, staff and community members to learn more about the negotiations.
One of the hot topics was a list that appeared to be a list of all the teachers and their salaries. It showed the salaries anywhere from about $15 per hour to about $60 per hour. As the list was passed around, many of the teachers were surprised at the figures.
Wymore explained that an anonymous person requested the list from the district office. From there, it circulated around the community and has caused tension and misinformation.
Financial officer Sharon Feldman explained that the list shows salaries, including benefits that the employees are eligible for such as health insurance. Because it is a privacy violation to disclose if an employee takes the benefit or partial benefit, the list had to include all benefits for which the teachers are eligible. This way, the salaries would appear much larger, even if a particular employee is not receiving that much in pay and benefits.
When doing the budget, Wymore explained, the district has to budget for all benefits the employees are eligible for, in the event that some switch to the school’s insurance or go from single to family status or other changes.
The explanation didn’t satisfy some, especially those who wanted to know why the list wasn’t titled or those who wanted to know who requested the information.

Levy and Budget
The school district’s truth-in-taxation meeting was December 21 to discuss and adopt the levy and budget.
The levy was up 10.08% from last year, for $2,101,541.03.  The state sets the school’s levy each year, as required because the school is a capital loan district.
Superintendent Wymore said the goal is to have 25% of the operating budget in reserves and as of the last audit the school had 26% in reserves, or $1.3 million.
Teacher Becky Mollberg said the district is ranked about 80th of 338 districts in the state for reserves.

Zero tolerance
The school’s policy committee was asked to review the zero tolerance marijuana policy. As it is, the school will expel a student who is caught with a measurable amount of marijuana. A measurable amount is anything that the person could be charged with in court.
Anything less than a measurable amount is dealt with at the school. In some cases, seeds or stems have been found during searches.
In both instances, whether measurable or not, law enforcement is involved.
High school principal Mark Nohner asked the school board members if this police could be updated and clarified, since it is called a “zero tolerance” policy.
“It’s rational,” Nohner said. “If it is measurable and they could be charged with a crime, then we go with expulsion. If it’s not measurable we deal with it at the school.”
Nohner said the random school searches using a contracted drug dog service have cut the prevalence down.
The school board members sent the issue to the policy committee to discuss.