Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood — The board of education for the Ironwood Area Schools approved new contracts for several district administrative positions Monday, as well as a change to the master administrator contract.
Ironwood Superintendent Travis Powell said the two-year contracts for the K-12 principal, business manager, supervisor of special education and board secretary are all the same terms as their current contracts.
“We’re in the process of making some district-wide changes and continuous improvement, so what this means is the admin team will continue to be together while we work on implementing those changes and continue to make Ironwood Area Schools the best place it can be,” Powell told the Daily Globe after the meeting.
He said there were no salary increases as current six-month contracts the district has with its teachers and support staff don’t include salary increases. The district continues to wait for the state to provide a clearer picture on what funding levels will be and Powell said no one in the district is moving forward in salary until everyone is able to.
The board also renewed the district’s master administrator contract. Powell said the renewal didn’t include many changes, but the board did approve consolidating several administrative positions within the contract, allowing it to function as something of a template for the district while handling individual contracts.
Along with the contract renewals, the board approved a letter of agreement with the three bargaining units representing the district’s employees.
Powell told the Daily Globe the one-year agreement covers various aspects of how the district is operating during the coronavirus pandemic.
He explained the agreement deals with items such as what personal protective equipment the district will provide, what social distancing and masking policies are, employee time-off if quarantining is needed, and other aspects of providing kids with an education during the pandemic that aren’t addressed in the normal contracts.
The district’s administrative team and union leadership have been working on the agreement since mid-summer, according to Powell, as part of the preparation for the start of the school year.
The agreement is set to expire June 30, 2021.
In other action, the board:
—Approved the monthly personnel report, which included hiring Adam Mackey and Jessica Mackey as the new boys and girls varsity basketball coaches, respectively.
—Approved a variety of minor changes to district policy.
