Many questions follow new deal between St. Paul schools, teachers

No one is offering details just yet, but hard choices lie ahead for the St. Paul School District as it figures how to fit a new teachers' contract into an already-stressed 2016-17 budget picture.

How difficult the challenge could be is expected to become clearer at a school board meeting next Tuesday.

By then, teachers will have decided whether to ratify a new two-year agreement that is expected to cost the district about $25 million. Among its key provisions are efforts to improve school safety. But one union leader said he believes the proposal comes up short in that marquee area.

"Morale would have been helped if someone had said [in the context of the contract], 'I'm sorry we made such a mess,' " said Roy Magnuson, who teaches at Como Park High. He has been one of several teachers who have spoken out in recent years about unruly behavior in the state's second-largest district.

Magnuson does not plan to lead a "Vote No" campaign. But he said he made his objections known to fellow union executive board members during a meeting Monday night. The board voted then to recommend ratification of the deal when teachers cast their votes on Friday.

After Monday's meeting, Denise Rodriguez, president of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, issued a statement acknowledging the tough choices made by union and district negotiators plus their shared role in rethinking how the district allocates its resources.

"Every tentative agreement represents compromise, and the agreement reached [last week], while a strong step in the right direction, is no different," she said. "There remains a lot of work for us to do to ensure that our schools prioritize site-specific solutions that address school climate and racial equity."

Across the state, teachers have settled 198 of 356 contracts, with average salary increases of 2 percent in the first year and 2 percent in the second, said Chris Williams, a spokesman for Education Minnesota.

In 2014, St. Paul teachers won a two-year deal priced at $33 million. That agreement came despite behind-the-scene estimates that it would create a $22.9 million budget shortfall in 2015-16. In the end, the gap was $11 million, and district leaders spent a few anxious months seeking ways to keep cuts away from classrooms.

The district expects another shortfall in 2016-17, but has yet to provide estimates.

Cause for alarm? "We'll let the process play out a little bit," Ryan Vernosh, a school district spokesman, said Tuesday.

Among the casualties in last year's budget talks was a district promise to the union to hire five licensed media specialists and five elementary school counselors. Those 10 positions now are among 30 agreed to as part of the latest round of talks.

"People do not believe that what has been negotiated sends a strong enough message to the public that there will be significant change in the fall," he said.