The White Bear Lake school board approved a two-year contract with the White Bear Lake Teachers Association on Monday night, just a day ahead of the state-mandated Jan. 15 deadline for districts to settle with their teachers' unions.
The deal gives teachers a 1.78 percent salary increase this school year and a 2.01 percent raise in 2008-09. It also calls for a 1.5 percent increase in coaching and leadership stipends. The contract is retroactive to July 1, 2007, so teachers will receive a check Jan. 28 for the salary increases they would have had when the contract started.
Its biggest increases are for teachers in their first six years, which came as part of a district effort to retain more of its young staff.
Teachers ratified the deal Jan. 4. If the school board had not approved it, the district would have faced six-figure fines from the state.
Ben Goessling • 651-298-1546
