ST. IGNATIUS — Mission teachers have a contract but there's some disagreement about what exactly the combined increase in pay adds up to for individual teachers, and how it will influence the school's budget problems in the future.

"This agreement is a 20 percent raise for our teachers for three years. That's pretty good. We are facing declining enrollment and other funding losses and this agreement will make things difficult. I'm just talking reality, it's not a judgment," vice chairman Dr. David Castor said at the November school board meeting.

A teacher at the school board meeting was concerned that his paycheck wasn't reflecting a 20 percent increase. Castor said the increase was based on steps and a combination of the yearly percentage increases over the next several years.

"I don't want to read in the Leader that we got a 20 percent increase, and we are not," teacher Lloyd Phillips said.

"We settled at three percent," union representative and teacher Tim Marchant said. "I can't account for where the 20 percent is coming from and I will be requesting information on that. I know they've added steps and lanes to the figure; we have steps and lanes in the contract."

Teachers are given a pay increase each year that they are employed and another increase for developing their skills as a teacher. Marchant said that the problem is that once teachers have topped those increases they can only increase their pay by negotiating the yearly contract for a higher percentage.

"Sometimes the administration looks at those percentage increases as cost of living increases and the federation looks at the increases as being for experience and increase in education," he said.

The teachers wanted to bargain for a five percent increase for the current year, but the board was worried that the school wouldn't be able to handle that much of an increase. Superintendent Tim Skinner said that a percentage higher than 1.5 would create job cuts.

"The percentage we got was a little bit short [of] the cost of living but we were anxious to settle. The district was hemorrhaging money paying for lawyer fees. It wasn't worth it anymore," he said.

In matters concerning academics, Skinner and his colleagues have made it a goal to work with the staff and community to become a more effective Title I school.

"Right now our Title I program is designed to be separate — we can only use the money we receive for disadvantaged students. That hasn't been very effective. I believe the way we are doing things needs to change. We just drifted into our current program and it's time to change that," he said. "If the new plan is approved we will be able to use the money for the entire school, for things like a full day of kindergarten and be able to provide more help for students individually."

Testing scores showed that achievement gaps for the elementary students don't exist, but are evident in high school students. Creating an equal educational environment is important to the school as well as finding ways to continually improve education and reduce the achievement gap, Skinner said.

"What support services do we need so kids don't fall through the cracks? Every year the achievement gap grows. By the time students are sophomores that gap is pretty wide," Skinner said.

Tracking a student's progress through testing and finding where they need extra support will help students throughout their education. That same testing also gives Skinner a comparison between students to help determine what programs need more emphasis. Tracking starts when the students begin school.

"The biggest predictor of high school graduation is being able to read by the third grade," Skinner said.

Skinner and administrators want to change the way students receive their education and the extra help that they need by developing new teaching strategies. Skinner is worried that the current program labels students.

"Right now students are pulled out of class to get help. That is damaging in my opinion. You never tell kids they're not smart. No one ever tells them that but they think that. It may be that they excel in other areas but have a tough time reading. Learning is hard work," he said. "What we can do is to involve the staff, teachers and the community to become a Title I school. It's going to be a community effort and a community decision."

Skinner has created a plan for the program and allocated where he thinks the money will be best served. He said that those ideas are subject to change with more input from staff and the community. He said he welcomes questions.

Hal Schmidt, who holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, has been working with Skinner to study the problems the school has. Together they have been trying to create solutions to those problems.

"He and I share the vision of Title I — to address the needs of the students. Schmidt has been a tremendous asset to our school. He helped develop programs for Indian education with the greatest respect to the Indian culture," Skinner said.

Visitors to St. Ignatius will discover that it's now easier to find the way to the Mission School District with the town's new clearly marked signs.

"Guests are always asking how to get to the school," middle school Principal Marilynn Tanner said.

The president of the city council, Charles Gariepy, personally put the signs up on both sides of town and at the turn towards the school. The city paid for two of the signs and the school paid for the third.