Dec 20, 2017 2 min read

NEW EAGLE – Teachers in Ringgold School District have reached a tentative contract agreement with district negotiators, putting an end to the possibility of a second walkout this term.

The agreement was announced jointly Wednesday by school board member William Stein Jr. and Ringgold Education Association President Maria Degnan at the start of the school board’s monthly meeting in the administration building in New Eagle.

“We are going to leave everything better than we found it,” Degnan said.

The union walked off the job for 23 days after giving the district an Oct. 13 strike notice, with salary and issues involving the salary step schedule having been the main stumbling blocks in reaching a new 5-year contract. The union also claimed during negotiations that its teachers were the lowest paid in the region, causing a pattern of turnover at Ringgold.

Stein said the teacher starting salaries and the steps needed for them to reach the top salary were resolved when the tentative settlement was reached Monday with the district’s 210 teachers.

The last proposal that was made public would have taken teacher salaries from between $36,000 and $78,508 a year last term to between $41,439 and $83,947 a year by the end of the contract.

Stein said the board expects to vote on the contract and make its terms public at the board’s Jan. 17 meeting. The teachers will vote on the proposal Jan. 11.

Negotiators were also met with dealing with contract items that were out of date, Stein said.

“Hopefully that will help us with stabilizing a lot of issues that were on the table,” he said.

He said the tentative contract also will allow the district to better plan for the district’s future.