Teachers in Whitefish School District will receive a 2.75 percent salary increase for the 2016-17 school year as part of a one-year agreement.

The Whitefish Education Association contract was approved at a board meeting Tuesday.

Starting teachers will make $38,012 with the increase figured in.

New to the contract is a longevity stipend for teachers who have signed their 19th contracts with the district. The stipend is 5 percent of the base salary prorated by the teacher’s workload.

Four new stipends were added into the collective bargaining agreement for Whitefish Middle School cross country and football coaches, a student council adviser and federal Perkins grant coordinator.

This was the first year Superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt has sat at the bargaining table with the teacher’s union. Both Davis Schmidt and Whitefish Education Association president Gayle Graf remarked on how smoothly negotiations went. In past years, negotiations had been contentious.

“We went through interest-based bargaining training,” Davis Schmidt said, noting training was facilitated by a representative from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

Through interest-based bargaining there is a focus on problem-solving and arriving at mutually beneficial solutions.

Graf said the interest-based bargaining method was a joint decision. This year negotiations were about building trust between administration and staff, according to Graf.

“After a one-day training, we worked two whole days and two half days to craft a contract,” Graf said. “We feel it supports both the teaching staff and the administration in making the Whitefish School District the best place in the valley to work and learn. All in all, the experience was a refreshing change from that of the past several years. This was underscored by the fact that, we believe, it is the first time in our history that a vote to ratify a contract was unanimous.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 758-4431 or [email protected].