At its regular meeting Monday, November 14, the St. Ignace Board of Education received a positive report from Hill Schroderus & Co., LLP, the accounting firm that conducted the school's 2005/2006 audit, but the board received heavy criticism from the St. Ignace Education Association (SEA), which said the administration acted inappropriately Wednesday, October 18, when it voted to institute a three-month school calendar, a decision the union said the board was not entitled to make because the calendar is part of a package contract that is still being negotiated.

St. Ignace Area Schools emerged from the 2005/2006 school year with a general fund balance of $405,495, $66,418 more than the district ended with last year.

Some of the savings is because of higher attendance at games, which reduced the school subsidy of athletics, said business manager Kathy McLeod. The administration transfers money from the general fund help pay the salaries of the district's 31 coaches. Salaries amount to 90 percent of the transfer. The remaining 10 percent is used to pay for equipment, she added.

Less money than expected was drawn last year from the general fund to pay for diesel fuel to run the district's busses. The administration expected gas prices to remain around $3 per gallon, but prices fell, instead. The district also saved on natural gas, which is used to heat the schools, because costs were less than expected.

Further, a mild winter last year produced relatively low snowfall and enabled the district to spend less than anticipated on snow plowing, Mrs. McLeod said.

The school spent less on classes and staffing, also. Four teachers who retired at the end of the 2004/2005 school year were not replaced, allowing the district to cut some classes and reorganize its remaining classes, a process which saved the school money but led to higher student counts in some courses, Mrs. McLeod said.

Last year, St. Ignace Area Schools did not offer French III or home economics, as it had the year before.

Another factor that led to the higher fund balance was the district's decision to pay its two counselors 75 percent of their normal salaries. This saved the district money during a time when the school had to borrow heavily from its fund balance. This year, owing to a better financial picture, their salaries have been increased to 100 percent of what they made in 2004/2005, Mrs. McLeod said.

Auditor Laurie Bamberg, who presented the report, said the fund balance looked better than last year's, but she added that it still does not achieve the recommendations of her firm. A district should have enough money in its fund balance to cover school expenses for about three months, she said. Right now, the St. Ignace Area School's fund balance could not run the school for a full month, she said.

On the other hand, the school's general fund has increased, and having a positive balance means the district can continue to employ all of its current staff members, Mrs. McLeod said. Therefore, current class offerings and services for students will remain intact.

In other business, teachers and staff attended the meeting, and Lynwood Leightner, president of the St. Ignace Education Association (SEA), announced that the union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the school board. The complaint was made to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

Negotiations between the school board and the SEA are incomplete, and Mr. Leightner said the school board acted in bad faith at a special meeting Wednesday, October 18, when it approved a three-month calendar the union had not agreed to.

The calendar is part of the teacher's contract, Mr. Leightner explained. The administration and SEA had agreed upon a calendar in June 2006, but when contract negotiations continued through August, the union and administration agreed to use the calendar on a month-tomonth basis until the contract is settled.

When the school board instituted a new three month calendar, however, it included at least 13 changes that the union had not agreed to. According to Nancy Cline of the Northern Michigan Education Association, the chief negotiator for the St. Ignace union, the school board changed the dates for professional development, changed some full days of instruction to half days, changed the last day of school, and changed parent-teacher conference dates. She wouldn't comment further.

Mr. Leightner said the board, St. Ignace Area Schools Superintendent Mike Springsteen, and Pete Everson, superintendent of the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District, acted in bad faith last June by agreeing to a calendar they could not live with.

Mr. Leightner said the union disputes board action to approve or disapprove any part of the teachers contract before negotiations are complete.

Ultimately, the decision to institute the three-month calendar will have a negative impact on the community, he said. Now that it has been distributed, parents will make plans based on it, he said, but contract negotiations are likely to lead to changes in the schedule. The union formally requested that the board vote on the contract package only when it has been completed.

Development of the calendar has been stalled because it reflects working conditions that teachers may be negotiating, including the number of days school will be in session, the length of those days, the number of days the district allows for holiday vacations, and if holidays such as Easter will have days off at all, Superintendent Mike Springsteen told The St. Ignace News last October.

Negotiators from the SEA and the school administration will meet Wednesday, November 29. They will work to resolve their differences with help from a mediator provided by the Michigan Deportment of Labor and Economic Growth, Bureau of Employment Relations.