Pequot Lakes’ teachers have gone over 420 days without a contract

423. That’s how many days the Pequot Lakes’ teachers have gone without a contract. And since the two sides haven’t met since July it looks like for the 2nd straight year the teachers will go back to school without a contract.
Pequot Lakes’ superintendent, Chris Lindholm, says, “The ball is in their court right now. They’re trying to see if they can use the offer we’ve put on the table with money, to meet some of the other needs that have been expressed by their groups.”
Molly Wiste, Pequot Lakes’ teachers’ union president, says, “We definitely hope to get something settled soon. We’d like to see a fair contract and we look forward to figuring out how to condense the steps and lanes and meet with the board again and go from there.”
Pequot Lakes School District pays their teachers by a matrix system. The teachers get paid more based on how long they’ve taught and how much education they have. Years are counted as steps and education as lanes. And Lindholm says their latest offer to the teachers would account for the school’s revenue increase from the state.
Lindholm says the only way to pay teachers more than they’ve been offered is by asking for more money from the community. But, as it looks like negotiations will carry into a second school year, the hope is it has as little of an impact possible on the students.