WIC reaches agreement with teachers union

By Allison Joy
IRON RIVER — On Sept. 8, teachers with the West Iron County School District ratified a new contract, which the WIC School Board of Education had approved on Sept. 6.
According to Superintendent Kevin Schmutzler,  “This new pay scale puts WIC teachers in the upper middle of the pay scale compared to the rest of the DIISD schools, where before we were near the bottom.”
This year, teachers will receive anywhere from a 5-10% pay raise, dependent on their years of service at the school, with the goal of making WIC teacher salaries more competitive with other schools within the Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District. 
As for the years to come: in 2023-24 all teachers will receive a 4% increase and in 2024-25 all teachers will receive a 3.5% increase.  
“With the increase of our foundation allowance to $9,150/student this year and an increase in student enrollment, we are confident that this is a well-deserved and sustainable pay raise for our teachers,” Schmutzler said. “This new contract also provides us with a competitive wage scale to help keep the teachers we currently have and attract future teachers.” 
School Board President Faye Atanasoff noted that the board was “representing the public” and “wants to keep qualified teachers to teach our children.” The contract passed with six approvals and one dissent, from Board Trustee Dennis Tousignant. The negotiating teams consisted of Mike Berutti, Amber Laturi and Kevin Schmutzler on the administrative side; and Darin Barry, Kevin Leonoff, Zac Goodman, Brenda Grubbs, Amy Jurecic and Dave Martinson (director) from the teachers union. While the issue of teacher shortage spans the state and nation, it has an acute impact on rural areas who already struggle to remain competitive. 
“There are a lot of school districts across the state who are short of teachers, school support staff, bus drivers — you name it,” Thomas Morgan, a spokesperson for the Michigan Education Association, the statewide teacher’s union, told MLive last month. “We’re still in the middle of a crisis.”