On Monday, Jan. 4, a team representing the teacher’s union met with officials from Edina Public Schools in order to negotiate teachers’ contracts. A prior contract had been voted down by the members of the teacher’s union several weeks ago. Although the district usually encounters difficulties when negotiating every two years over teachers’ salaries, this negotiation is proving especially difficult. The majority of teachers that voted against the contract had frustrations that circulated around insurance coverage and pay. In years past, insurance had been covered for teachers. However, by not covering insurance, teachers would need to pay out of pocket which would therefore ultimately decrease their salaries.

Spanish teacher Erik Gronberg suggested that teachers had chosen to vote against the contract in order to “voice their displeasure with the working conditions in the school district.” Gronberg believes that the teachers who voted in favor of the new contract did so because “people generally understand that nobody is getting big raises anywhere so a small increase is a positive thing.”

Both Gwen Jackson, the Director of Human Resources and Operations for the Edina district as well as Rob Gardner, a former teacher and member of the Education Minnesota Governing Board agree on the major distinctions between the new contracts. This includes a salary increase, additional money for health insurance, and compensating sports coaches better. Jackson added that this new contract proposal “has been confirmed that the current offer is the highest settlement among the Lake Conference districts.” The Lake Conference district includes Eden Prairie, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Wayzata. However, this new contract has not yet been voted on.

Gardner believes that if this contract is not passed through, all teachers throughout the Edina district may respond by participating in a “Firm Forty.” A “Firm Forty” is when teachers would come in at eight o’clock in the morning and then walk out at eight o’clock in the afternoon, teachers limit their time to exactly 40 hours a week so outside of school hours, teachers would not work. If a “Firm Forty” took place, students would be unable to stay after school to have a teacher review concepts with them before a test, essays and short answer test would take months to receive feedback on, and teachers would feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that was needed to complete. Rob Gardner released the results on January 21st that the vote passed by a 82 percent majority .