The school board for Robbinsdale Area Schools is holding a closed-door meeting Monday night to discuss negotiations for a new teacher’s contract.

Parents joined teachers to show their support in a rally before the meeting.

The current district proposal includes no pay raise this year and about 1% next year, with no additional benefits.

Parents say the offer isn’t good enough.

“It’s solidarity,” parent Beth Wise said. “It’s showing up. It’s one to let the district leaders know that parents are watching, and we are involved, and we do have expectations. Essentially teachers are going to be making less now than they did two years ago with no change on their end and I don’t think anyone would accept that.”Play Video

Teacher negotiations continue in Robbinsdale

The president of the Robbinsdale Federation of Teachers, Peter Eckhoff, tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS closed door discussions about their contracts haven’t happened in months. He says it’s all in preparation for the next mediation between the union and district, set for May 5.

Eckhoff said of their goals, “The hope is really to get a contract that has some financial improvement on the salary schedule, so that it remains in the marketplace around us, and a little bit of help on the 12% insurance premium increases that we’ve seen since January 1.”

All of this is happening as the district works to dig out of a major financial hole, following years of lower enrollment, deferred maintenance, and a $20 million accounting error, to name a few reasons. 

We will continue to follow the contract negotiation and bring you any new developments.