Next school year’s contracts for teachers have been ratified in the Greene County School District.

Earlier this month, the Greene County Education Association and the Greene County School Board ratified the negotiated agreement. The agreement for GCEA for the 2022-23 school year includes an increase to the base salary of 3.68-percent to $33,350 for a total cost of $301,609 to the district. Initially, GCEA’s offer was an increase of the base salary to $34,950 for a total cost of $626,000, while the school board countered with freezing the base salary, allowing for step and lane increases for a total cost of $181,000.

Heath Telleen was part of the GCEA negotiations team and says their initial offer was in line with what other schools have settled according to reports from the Iowa State Education Association. They also believed they are in a district where there has been declining enrollment more years than not and there is also a teacher shortage in the state, so they wanted to keep and retain quality teachers. 

Superintendent Tim Christensen feels the negotiations went well and finished within one hour. He uses an example of how negotiations end up.

“I think everybody’s been involved in some type of negotiations, maybe not financial, but, ‘Can I stay out until midnight?’ ‘No you need to come home at 8(pm).’ So typically both parties start at the extreme and are willing to meet pretty close to the middle.”

Telleen and Christensen believe that both sides wanted to continue to make Greene County Schools a place where teachers want to be and live in the communities. Negotiations will now take place for the administrators and classified staff. Click the link below to see the full agreement.