By Patrick Tepoorten

The North Branch school board approved a contract with its bus drivers, Teamsters Local 320, effective from July 1, 2006 until June 30, 2008. The contract includes a 35-cent increase to the salary schedule each year and a $25 increase to the districtís portion of health care costs.

As part of the approval process for employee unions in the school district, the board must first pass a Structural Balance resolution. The purpose of this is to encourage the district to look at how a given contract will affect the budget years of the contract as well as a year beyond. While this latest contract is a very small percentage of the districtís overall budget, looking at how it does affect the budget also gives the district a chance to project its overall budget for the next three years.

As has been indicated in the past, Johnson sees cuts in North Branchís future. She anticipates the district will have to cut just over $2 million from the 2007-08 budget, and more than $1.7 million from the 2008-09 budget.

Of course, the district is unable to project the level of funding the district might receive from the state in future years because those figures have not been addressed or agreed upon by state legislators. The state will not determine its level of funding until the coming spring.

Without new figures, Johnson based her calculations on state funding remaining flat until at least 2009. Were the state to increase funding in the next biennium, the level of deficit the district is faced with could decrease or even be eliminated.

Other factors that will affect future deficits is enrollment, which went down this year. If that trend continues next year the deficit will increase. If enrollment increases, the projected deficit decreases.

Johnson cautioned that many things could change between now and spring. Aside from intangibles like funding and enrollment, she expects future deficit figures to decrease once the final numbers of last yearís budget are tallied. She called the figures given to the board last Thursday a ìworst-case scenario.î

In other school news:

ï A contract with the districtís 12-month, non-union employees was also approved. It includes an average of a five percent increase to pay per year, and the districtís health care cost commitment was raised to reflect what teachers receive.

ï Updates to policy 612.1, which organizes the relationship between the district and Title One parents, was approved.

ï Responding to a state Department of Education directive, adult lunch prices were raised from $2.60 to $2.70.

ï The board heard the first reading of changes to policy 1210.1, pertaining to the use of school facilities. The key change to the policy is regarding building use requests. If the policy is approved, all requests for building use outside of school hours will be handled by community education, not the building administrators.

ï The position of an Education Research and Dissemination (ERD) site coordinator was established. Superintendent Rodney Reisnouer said the position is designed to ìteach teachers how to use researchî among other things, and called the program excellent. The position will be part-time with no regular hours.

ï Director of Teaching and Learning Jan Ashlin summarized the districtís Annual Report on Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Achievement. Results from MCA II testing, which the state uses for No Child Left Behind compliance, were not available in time for the report. They will be added as an addendum to the report on Nov. 15.

The district is not required to send its annual report to every household via postal service this year. Instead, the report is available at the district Web site. Go to northbranch.k12.mn.us and click on ìCurriculum and Instruction,î then ìannual report.î Paper copies of the report are available for mailing by calling Jan Ashlin, Director of Teaching and Learning, at (651) 674-1016.