MARQUETTE, MI-- Marquette Area Public Schools teachers are finally working under a new contract.
In a special meeting Monday night the MAPS Board of Education voted 5-2 to ratify the agreement, which covers the three-year period from 2013 to 2016.
Superintendent Bill Saunders says the contract includes a step and a 1% pay increase in the 14/15 school year and a step and a .75% pay raise in 15/16. He says teachers could get another .5% raise, depending on enrollment and the state’s allocation.
Saunders says financially it was a large contract to be able to pass, but several factors proved to be the turning point in its ratification by the board.
“Because we had a substantial increase in our enrollment—right now we’re about 70 students above and beyond projections—and also as of May the state increased our per-pupil foundation allowance by $173 per pupil, so, that helped alleviate some of the immediate financial pressures that we felt,” he says.
The Marquette Area Education Association has already ratified the contract. That vote was 132-12.
