The North Greene School District teachers will hopefully have a new contract signed at the turn of the new year. The North Greene School Board and the North Greene Education Association had been at a contractual impasse since the Spring over salary and benefits.
Third-party mediators were brought in and able to help the two sides reach an agreement last week. The new contract is yet to be signed. Mark Scott, Superintendent of the North Greene School District, told the Greene Prairie Press that the agreement which had been in negotiations since the Spring will hopefully be signed in January.
The two sides have had relative labor peace for nearly twenty years. The last work stoppage in the district came in 1998, when NGEA Local 3818 picketed for 44 days in one of the longest teacher’s strikes in the state’s history. The central issue in that labor stoppage was also salary, benefits, and just cause for termination language inclusion in the teacher’s contract.
Scott was glad that the third party mediator was able to hash out the two sides’ differences and continue business for the district. The new contract is expected to be signed at the North Greene School Board meeting in January.