The Daily Reporter
The Branch Intermediate School District trustees approved a new two-year contract with its Branch Intermediate Organization union Wednesday to run through June 30, 2023.
Superintendent Kris Jenkins said the first-year increase is 3%, with a 2.5% increase in 2022-23.
The contract covers all certified and non-certified staff in administration, the Branch Area Career Center and Special Education.
Board Chairman Ken Norton called it “a cooperative process. We arrived at an agreement.”
Those working in the Headstart and early education programs are in a different union.
Recognizing the need to find new employees and to keep current ones with higher wages in the market, the board also adopted a new higher pay scale for its Tier I paraprofessionals, those who aid in classrooms. Jenkins said, “the whole point is to bring our lowest paid people up.”
By Jim Measel
Jul 21, 2021 | 8:09 PM
COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) â Branch Intermediate School District Superintendent Kris Jenkins told the B.I.S.D. Board of Education on Wednesday the renovation project at the Branch Area Careers Center is behind schedule due in part to snafus in getting permits from the State of Michigan.
She said the architects and the state have been going back and forth on the needed permits since February 19 and they have not heard back from the state since the first of July.
Jenkins says the construction manager is coming up with ways students can continue learning in their programs while the work is going on.