Principals receive long-awaited contracts

After a sizeable amount of back and forth, the Somers-Lakeside school board approved contracts for the district’s administrators, district clerk and nurse at a special meeting Tuesday, June 21.

Somers Middle School principal Lori Schieffer was expecting an offer from the board that would reduce her hours from full-time to three-quarter, but found out while attending the meeting that the board wanted to keep her on full-time again next year.

While Schieffer said that although she appreciated the fact that they want her full-time, the news was unsettling and frustrating considering she had been told so many different things about the contract she would be offered. Having to find out that the actual offer was much different than what she expected didn’t sit well with her.

“I’m pleased that you guys would like to have me back full-time, but it’s a little late now,” Schieffer told the board during an open comment period at the meeting.

Schieffer added that initially, when she was notified that she was being reduced to three-quarters-time to accommodate budget shortfalls, she “felt badly” about the situation. Then she decided to make the best of it and registered for a Ph.D. program. Since then, Schieffer said the news spread widely through the community and to her friends and family. With her summer class schedule starting soon, Schieffer would also lose the money she’s already put down for the classes.

While Schieffer repeatedly stated that even a couple of weeks notice may have altered her decision, board chair David Alexander said she was offered a second negotiations meeting with the board but declined.

“Had I known something had changed, I absolutely would have met with the board again,” Schieffer said.

Alexander apologized for the misunderstanding, and offered her another meeting but also said he felt it was best for the principals if they were able to work it out at the meeting.

“I think the biggest problem is communication,” Wing said. “We have had two weeks of knowing that we had more money and no one taking the initiative to come up with a new plan and take it to the appropriate people.”

These salary contracts were supposed to be voted on initially at the June 15 regular meeting, but both Alexander and Mike Schlegel, who along made-up the two person committee in charge of these salary negotiations, were absent from that meeting.

A NEW TIMELINE

The situation of not knowing what the upcoming year holds for administrators became a hot topic at the meeting. Teachers are notified in April if their contracts will not be renewed, but for the past three years the principals in the district have had to wait until the summer to receive their annual contract offer from the board, and one of those years it took all the way until September.

“The problem is that there are no jobs in the summer if the principals decided they don’t want to sign the contracts you offer them,” Somers-Lakeside superintendent Teri Wing told the board. “In April there are jobs.”

Multiple board members defended the late offers with the basis that they didn’t have budget numbers until just recently due to the legislature.

However, Lakeside Elementary School principal John Thies reiterated that this is not the first time this has happened. He then suggested that the board add into the principals’ contracts that new offers be extended to them by a selected date in late April during years when the legislature is not meeting and a date slightly further out during years when the budget will be dependent on news from the legislature.

A LACK OF INFORMATION

Adding to the struggle was the fact that multiple board members said they felt like they were not well enough informed about the contract negotiation process.

“I guess I feel that I’m making a very big decision without enough information,” said board member Courtney Shaeffer.

Wing asked the committee members to explain what process was gone through and about how meetings were conducted.

Schlegel responded to Wing by saying, “We had one meeting and there was one phone conversation between Dave and me.”

An insufficient amount of information about the negotiations was also a concern of board member Tim Rogge.

“I’m coming to a contract negotiation, but all I have is the old contracts from last year in my agenda packet,” Rogge said. “I don’t have a committee report or any information about how the proposal was formed, so I can make some coherent thoughts about these topics and jot down some questions. This seems to be a problem across the board.”

Earlier during the meeting Wing also noted that she was concerned with the fact that notes weren’t taken and signed-off on during negotiation meetings and that there were no real negotiations, but rather just offers from the board without a lot of conversation.

“I don’t know why there has to be such vagary with negotiations with principals,” Wing said. “It isn’t that way with the teachers.”

AGREEABLE OFFERS

Ultimately, the board asked Schieffer and Thies what they wanted their new contracts to include. An earlier recommendation by Thies that they receive a 2 percent increase in salary was used by both he and Schieffer in their requests. The principals have had their salaries frozen for the past two years.

The board approved Schieffer’s request to move to three-quarter time. Her 2 percent pay increase will be based on her full-time salary from last year and then reduced to a three-quarter amount. Schieffer arrived at the meeting with a suggested offer in a memorandum that also included lines regarding her ability to come back on a full-time basis on the next contract. The board approved the offer, with the caveat of needing to work on some of the wording.

The board approved a 2 percent increase on Thies’ base salary as well. Both principals’ benefit packages will remain the same. Additionally, the board agreed to add a line in both contracts regarding setting an early spring date for offering these contracts next year. That part of the contracts will be worked out in the next 20 days, as will the wording of Schieffer’s memorandum.

Once the principals’ contracts were taken care of, incoming superintendent Casey Love’s contract was up for vote. There was no comment during his turn, as Love’s contract was made available to him prior to the meeting and was included in full detail in the board packet.

District clerk Diane Fetterhoff was granted a 50 cent per hour raise, which is about a 2.5 percent increase from last year.

School nurse Helyna Kretske, who serves both Somers Middle School and Lakeside Elementary School, was given a $1.50 per hour raise.

Fetterhoff will continue to receive her health insurance as before. Kretske is part-time and therefore does not qualify to receive insurance.

OTHER BUSINESS

Following the salary negotiations, the board dealt with the business for which the special meeting had originally been planned — awarding an architectural engineer contract for the Somers Middle School roof project.

The board narrowed down the applicants to two, Architects Northwest and CTA Architects Engineers. The facilities committee will interview both of the applicants Wednesday at a special committee meeting.

The next regular board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 13.