LACON, Ill. – Contract talks within a Marshall County school district have hit a wall.
25 News reports talks between the Midland District Seven School Board and the Midland Education Association have been going on since February. The previous contract expired June 30th.
MEA President Meredith Hatten tells 25 News the union is seeking competitive pay and benefits to help retain teachers in the district.
“Every time you lose a teacher it takes a long time to get them up to speed with how your district runs, so we want to retain the great teachers that we already have here, and we can do that by getting them a fair contract to be better paid,” Hatten said.
The union has said that contraction negotiations are going well, despite the holdups on pay and insurance.
Midland Board President Jay Riddell says calculating teacher pay is a complicated topic. But he also notes that while the district is financially stable, it’s not where it could be.
“We’re a small rural school district. We’re actually the largest employer inside our school district. We really heavily need the local funding, the tax dollars,” Riddell said.
Strikes are not planned since the union is willing to work without a contract.
Both sides are also willing to have a federal mediator help with talks.
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