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The North Branch School Board boosted its substitute teacher daily pay for the next two years, in action last week and included a bonus above  the casual contract, for any retired teacher who works as a sub.

Director of Finances and Human Resources Todd Tetzlaff said substitute teachers are in demand. Anything the district can do to attract a roster of substitutes to call on can only improve the process. “The structure (of the new wage) is designed to encourage and provide additional compensation to substitute teaching staff, who work more days in our school district,” he stated.

The retired teacher brings skills  to any substituting situation that should be rewarded,  and the wage scale should reflect that in comparison to a substitute who is not bringing prior experience in education.

The Board agreed that assignments of up to five days for a substitute teacher will be $180 a full day and $90 for a half day,  up from $160 the past year.  

However, any retired teacher will receive $200 and $100.

Wage is revised on day six  using the entry level salary from the teacher salary schedule.  Assignments of 31 days or more consecutive school days lifts the substitute into the long term category and long term wages are based on step and lane.  

The incentive pay clause was approved for subs working 2025-26 and 2026-27 only and Tetzlaff said this offers an opportunity to earn several thousand dollars in addition to base wage.  

Incentive pay will be based on how many days the sub worked so the longer a sub remains in a North Branch assignment, more compensation is available. 

Meanwhile, for North Branch Activities Department workers, the site manager pay was increased to $125 per day of an event.  

Tetzlaff said the review of the action puts North Branch in-line with other Mississippi 8 Conference contracts.

In other business: the awarding of the sanitation services unanimously went to Terry Flor’s daughter Angie, who has taken up the garbage hauling operations following Terry’s death. Doing business as Angie’s Disposal LLC she submitted one of two quotes for providing all the recycling and waste services, at $7,605 monthly.  

The only other quote received was from Chisago Lakes Sanitation for $9,120.41 monthly.

At the end of the meeting there is a chance for board members to request information on a special topic, and Adam Trampe wanted staff to look at high school scheduling. “Get inside the process a little,” as he put it, and bring a recap back to the next Board meeting. 

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