At a special meeting Tuesday, January 30, the St. Ignace school board approved a three-month school calendar for February through April which details vacation days, the end of the third marking period, and teacher training days. The dates could change if the board and the teachers' union come to an agreement on the teacher contract. The school's calendar still is being negotiated, as are wages and benefits.

The board decision to implement its second, tentative, threemonth calendar followed unsuccessful negotiations Monday, January 29, between the school board and the St. Ignace Education Association (SEA). If the board and SEA do not come to an agreement by May, another calendar will be created for the final weeks of the school year, board members said. The school district will send a copy of the new calendar to parents, but the date to send the calendar has not been established.

The school's calendar details activities for May and June, but these reflect an older agreement between SEA and the board; nothing past April is approved by the school board, said Superintendent Mike Springsteen.

No date has been set for further negotiations on the teachers contracts, said Mr. Springsteen. Negotiations have stalled, in part, because the administration does not know how much it can offer teachers financially, owing to the possibility that the state will take back money it promised the school system earlier this year. How much money the state takes back, if any, will not be released until early March, Mr. Springsteen added. Teachers are working for the same wages as last year, plus mandated step increases, but have not received additional pay raises.

When the board approved the last three-month calendar in October, the SEA filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the school board to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. The case is still waiting to be heard, Mr. Springsteen said.

SEA president and teacher Lynwood Leightner said the union disputes board action to approve or disapprove any part of the teachers contract before negotiations are complete.

In August, SEA and the board agreed to create a calendar on a month-to-month basis until the contract is settled. By October, however, when the school board felt a timely agreement would not be reached, it created its first three-month calendar, so people "would have something to plan for," Mr. Springsteen told The St. Ignace News. In coming weeks, for example, parents need to plan for spring break, which has been set for April 2 through April 6.

Tentative three-month calendars, however, could lead parents to make plans that could be affected if the calendar is changed by negotiations, Mr. Leightner contends.

At the regular school board meeting Monday, November 14, the union formally requested that the board vote on the contract package only when it has been completed.

In June, the board and SEA tentatively agreed on a 2006/2007 calendar that included 177 work days, which would make the school year five days shorter than it has been in the past. That calendar is no longer being followed.

There are several reasons for going with a shorter school year.

"One could argue that the school would save money on busing," for example, Mr. Springsteen said. Without coming to an agreement regarding how much teachers would be paid, the board chose not to follow the shorter calendar agreed upon last June. The three-month calendar extensions have been made with the district's traditional 182-day school year in mind, Mr. Springsteen said.