By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Brandon Twp. — During the regular Brandon School Board meeting on Monday night, Brandon staff members attended to share their experiences and day-to-day tasks working in education.
At issue is their contract, which has been expired for teachers since Oct. 31.
“We love and appreciate our teachers, and we know they do a fantastic job,” said Superintendent Carly Stone. “We began negotiating in the spring of 2024 in an attempt to come to an agreement before their contract expired.”
During public comment, teacher and Brandon Educator’s Association president Andrea Noeker also acknowledged the work on a new contract.
“We have spent a lot of dedicated time and many, many hours negotiating with the district and now working under an expired contract,” said Noeker. “I invited people here this evening to give just a few insights into how hard teachers work to provide quality, engaging, wide-reaching opportunities to Brandon students. Their hard work and dedication should be rewarded, not only with increases that attempt to keep up with cost-of-living and healthcare, but that also recognize their professionalism and expertise in their craft. Wage increases should not be tied to acceptance of language changes.”
Stone said that they are looking forward to settling the contract soon, and hope they will come to an agreement that makes everyone happy.
“We truly value all of our staff in the school,” she said. “We’ve been working on negotiations, we’ve been working in good faith, and we look forward to having a contract settled soon.”
Noeker also said that while they are still working through the negotiation process, the teachers are disappointed about financial claims made to them.
“I have negotiated many contracts of the years and have always had a collaborative relationship with the District,” she said. “That is something I am hopeful can continue as we work through this process. We have many dedicated teachers, counselors, social workers, speech therapists and school psychologists here who care deeply for our students and the community. They go above and beyond on a daily basis in countless ways. In an era of teacher shortages and high turnover rates, our goal is to keep our highly trained, dedicated professionals here in our school district where the institutional knowledge that these educators possess promotes consistency and continuity in the classrooms, school culture, and curriculum delivery. This will continue to help set our students up for success and prepare them for the future.”