For the first time since the 1970s the Dickinson Public School Board and the Dickinson Education Association have come to an impasse in contract negotiations for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years.
The board offered an annual salary of $38,400 per year for new teachers, increasing to $40,200 per year in the second year, School Board President Kris Fehr said. All other salaries would move up through the teacher salary matrix.
But the offer was not accepted.
"It's disappointing," Fehr said. "I really feel that negotiations have gone fairly well this year, so it's disappointing that this is where we ended up."
The board and DEA practice collaborative bargaining, where the parties bring issues to the table and discuss them until a solution is found, rather than adversarial bargaining, where the sides offer and counteroffer.
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"Last year, negotiations went very well," Fehr said. "I think we were all very happy with how the negotiations went. This year we've been negotiating since December and have resolved a number of issues brought forward by the DEA."
Under the rejected proposition, depending on where they sit on the matrix, existing teachers would be getting raises from $4,500 to $8,000.
"The raise is unprecedented in the history of Dickinson Public Schools as far as anyone can remember," Fehr said. "Normally, you're in the 4 to 5 percent range."
There was also a dispute over the addition of two professional development days in the second year.
The issue will now move to the Governor's Education Factfinding Commission, to which the board and the education association will state their cases.
Once the Factfinding Commission has official notification, it will set a date for a public hearing where any taxpayer in the school district is welcome to attend and voice an opinion, Chairman Dean Rummel of Dickinson said.
The commission is a three-person traveling committee -- consisting of Rummel, Barbara Evanson of Burleigh County and Jerry Heib of Barnes County -- that is brought in when a school board and education association hit an impasse in the bargaining process.
Both sides need to contact the commission.
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"Until they actually tell me, I don't get involved," Rummel said.
In his nine years on the commission, Rummel has settled as many as nine disputes in one year, but most years are less. The years in which the legislative sessions meet are busiest because most districts sign two-year contracts after the Legislative session wraps.
Because the school year is wrapping up soon, teachers will not have next year's contracts in their hands before they leave for the summer, Fehr said. Once an agreement is reached, the teachers have 30 days to send back signed contracts.
"Basically, we have no teachers under contract" for the next school year, Fehr said. "It's definitely in everybody's best interest to get those contracts -- get the negotiations settled and get the contracts out, get them issued."
Diana Stroud, president of the DEA, had no comment when contacted at noon Wednesday.
