By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.-School district teachers will be looking at another 2 percent increase in salary, a step increase similar to last year.
On Monday night the board of education voted 7-0 to approve the new contract for teachers in the Brandon Education Association.
“This salary increase is a much needed reprieve from the concessions that many teachers here taken over the years,” said John Martin, BEA president and high school English teacher. “It still doesn’t solve the salary deficit, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.”
The teachers had a 7.5 percent salary decrease in 2013, and since then the board has been trying to steadily increase wages for the last few years.
“We want Brandon to be a district that is able to recruit and retain talented teachers to ensure that our students have the best chances for success, and creating a competitive salary is one of the first areas in need of attention,” said Martin.
Another change to the contract is time spent with students.
“We did codify some time within the school day each month to devote to tracking student progress,” he said.

“Keeping in line with Dr. Outlaw’s 2025 vision, this time will be devoted to identifying struggling students and implementing potential intervention strategies to help these students find success.
This is necessary work for teachers and administration alike, and we were able to find a solid model to continue this work.”
Matt Outlaw, district superintendent was pleased with the new contract.
“The district has made significant efforts to improve the financial health of the district over the past few years,” said Outlaw.
“ As a result of these efforts, we were pleased to be able to offer another positive contract for our teachers. They are among the greatest strengths of our district and we are truly blessed to have such a dedicated and compassionate staff.”
The preschool teachers will also see a change in their pay scale, added Martian.
“Over the past couple of years since we were able to secure the preschool teachers within our bargaining unit, it became clear that in order to maintain a competitive cost for our preschool programs we would need to do something about the increasing costs associated with the preschool program, much of which is tied up in teacher salaries,” said Martin. “It was our focus through this negotiation cycle to allow the district some financial reprieve to balance these liabilities while maintaining the salaries and benefits for these teachers at a top level within the area.”
Salaries may be renegotiated for the 2018-19 school year.