After a full day of mediation on November 6, 2025, and a second meeting regarding the Activities Contract on November 10, 2025, Cass Lake-Bena School District and Cass Lake Education Association (CLEA/Teacher’s Bargaining Unit) have reached a tentative settlement agreement. During mediation, the parties agreed to the following contract changes:
Salary - a 2% increase year 1 and a 2.25% increase year 2 on all cells in the schedule. During the November 10 meeting, the parties agreed that this would be retroactive to the beginning of the school year.
Health Insurance Contribution - a set dollar amount of $16,500 annually will be made available to purchase any of the health care plans offered by the district. This amounts to a $1,375 per month contribution. During the November 10 meeting, the parties agreed that this contribution amount would go into effect on January 1, 2026, which coincides with the health insurance renewals. This makes the costs for health insurance known from year to year for the district, and also provides a significant benefit for teachers.
Severance pay -- for teachers with a minimum of 20 years in the district, compensation for unused sick leave will move to 50% of the teacher’s daily rate of pay (rather than the substitute teacher rate of pay). This language sunsets for anyone hired after September 1, 2025. What this means for the district with that sunset language, is that the district can now levy for those costs, rather than taking them out of the general fund. This reduces the direct impact on student programming.
Length of School Year --During mediation, the parties reached a compromise in order to reach an agreement on salary. The total contract days will be reduced by two -- one student day and one staff day. (students from 172 - 171, staff from 181 to 179). This will go into effect year 2 of the contract (2026-27 school year).
Work outside the contract -- the agreement raised the curriculum rate of pay to $40/hour and reached agreement to keep the sub rate for teachers who split the classes of another teacher at $35/hour as it currently is. This will not be retroactive, as agreed upon during the November 10 meeting.
When Lane Change Requests are submitted and effective --the parties agreed to move the date that lane change requests are due back to the September 1 deadline that existed prior to the last contract agreement and the September 15 effective date.
Hours of Service -- Current contract language states that when teachers sub for other teachers, the time they are paid extra for is rounded up to the next 30 minutes. The high school and middle school class periods are 67 minutes, so under the current contract language, teachers subbing for other teachers would work for 67 minutes, but get paid for 90 minutes. The parties reached an agreement to reduce that to 15 minute intervals, so the amount of time a teacher gets paid for will more closely align with the actual work done. The parties agreed that this language would not be applied retroactively during the November 10 meeting.
Previously, the parties had agreed to language that allowed teachers to utilize their 403B contribution to pay down student loans and still be eligible for the district contribution to their 403B plan.
The activities contract agreements included a wage increase of 2% year 1 and 2.25% year two for coaches listed on the schedule, the addition of an E-sports coach, realigning cheer coaches by season and adding a managerial pay scale for concession stand manager position and school store manager position.
Under activities, the parties agreed to increase the reimbursement for high school coaches who attend the state tournament in their respective sport from $300 to $400. For coaches attending coaching clinics, the reimbursement is raised from $300 to $500. This was done to encourage coaches to pursue professional development that will impact their coaching and their teams.
The next steps of the process include CLEA negotiators presenting this information to the CLEA Executive Board, which occurred Wednesday, 11/12/25. The executive board did accept the tentative agreements, so the contract goes out to membership for a vote. If the CLEA membership approves the contract, the school board would then need to vote to accept the contract.
A thank you goes out to negotiators from both parties for working hard to reach an agreement on a contract offer that is both fair and sustainable. As it usually happens in negotiations, the true spirit of compromise was displayed.