The School district and the Lincoln County Education Association Union or LCEA agreements are close to being completed. Mediation between the District and LCEA concluded earlier this month with several agreements in areas of salary schedule, length of contract, teacher rights, fringe benefits, and professional development. The major remaining discord is over the effective date of the contract. The District has stated from the beginning of negotiations that the contract would go into effect at the date of ratification. Michael Morgan school human resources director said the district was able to give more on the requested salary increases and other requests from the LCEA because of it not going into affect until ratification.

The contract that ended on June 30, 2015 is still being followed as “Status Quo”. The district has not moved on their position of using the date of ratification as the implementation of the contract. The district stated that had they reached a settlement at the last session, November paychecks would have reflected the increase in salary schedule. The District accepted LCEA’s salary schedule proposal as presented. With the desire to finish bargaining and committing to the original stance of not offering retroactive pay, the district accepted the LCEA’s salary proposal, knowing that the higher cost this year would be partially absorbed with a late ratification date. A second mediation session is scheduled for December 16th.