District, teachers reach tentative pact MAPS contract
District, teachers reach tentative pact MAPS contract
By SCOTT SWANSON Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE — The Marquette schools district and its teachers’ union reached a tentative agreement Friday on a 2006-2007 labor contract .
Terms of the agreement will remain confidential until the Marquette school board and members of the Marquette Area Education Association have ratified the contract, a process which is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
“This was a very positive negotiation process,” district Superintendent Jon Hartwig said. “It’s a tentative agreement that I believe will be very good for the school district and school community.
“I think right from the beginning of the negotiation process both parties have agreed to approach collective bargaining positively, with a focus on a positive conclusion. We’re also very aware of the importance of a good productive process to the school community. It’s really a reflection of teamwork.”
Matthew Edgell, spokesman for the union, was equally positive.
“I think I can speak for everybody on the union negotiation team that these negotiations were different than any in memory for any of us,” he said. “They were much more based on solving problems than they were on contentions. I’m impressed with how quickly we finished up and how well we got along.
“We were more around the table than we were across the table.”
Edgell said the union will meet at 5 p.m. next Friday at the little theater at Marquette Senior High School to consider the agreement. If ratified, the school board will likely consider the contract at its Aug. 22 meeting, Hartwig said.
The collective bargaining process took about two months to complete.
The previous agreement between the district and union — in 2004 — was not reached until Sept. 26 of that year. Teachers had threatened to strike if an agreement had not been reached by that date.
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