North Branch School Board
will consider easements for city
By Barbara Brown
The North Branch School board agreed at its Feb. 14 meeting to consider a request from the cityís Water and Light Commission to extend water and sewer service across school district property for developments on the east side of town. The city and the commission are asking the school board to set aside an easement along the northern part of school district property along Grand Avenue to run water and sewer service to housing developments and to install a new water tower. Jay Kennedy, an engineer from the cityís engineering firm, WSB Associates, said the water tower would give better water pressure, especially for fire hydrants.
He added that the school board eventually could connect to the sewer and water systems. In exchange for the easements, the city and water and light commission are offering a discount of one hook-up charge to the school district when/if a new school is built. According to information Kennedy supplied at the meeting, the easement property is valued at about $20,000 and the commission and city would waive a fee that adds up to about $45,000 in hook-up charges for the school. The board will consider the request at a later meeting. In the meantime, the board agreed to let surveyors onto the proposed easement property to test the soil. In other board business, the board voted to accept new contracts for teachers and for custodial staff. Teachers can expect to see a 4.16 percent salary increase in the 2002-2003 school year and a 6.19 percent increase in their pension and insurance benefits. The increases are the second part of a two-year plan that gave teachers an 8.55 percent increase in pay and a 12.64 percent increase and benefits. Board member Donna Setter told the board that the pay and benefit rates are comparable with other school systems. She said the North Branch system was losing teachers because its pay scales started lower than those in many other school systems. Custodial staff can expect a 4.93 percent step increase for the coming school year, a 6.95 percent salary increase and a 2.82 percent benefits increase. Last year, custodial staff received a 2.06 percent step increase, a 3.21 percent salary increase and benefit increase less than one percent. The contracts are good through June 30, 2003.
Also, the board accepted committee assignments for the coming year. Those assignments are as follows:
Chairman Rick Olseen: custodial, Early Childhood Family Education, principals, SEE and American Indian committee.
Kim Salo: nine and 12 month classified, teachers, SEE, Main Street School advisory and district staff development.
Mary Jo Ahlgren: grades nine through 12, principals, Middle School advisory.
Kirby Ekstrom: custodial, grades nine through 12, bus drivers, MSHSL, community education, ALC.
Donna Setter: teachers, bus drivers, Primary School advisory, system accountability team and calendar.
Jeanne Walz: nine and 12 month classified, MSBA legislative. The entire board will serve on the superintendent committee. The boardís next meeting is Feb. 25 in the North Branch High School auditorium, where it will further discuss options to combat overcrowding in the schools for the coming school year.
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