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NANTICOKE — With two members absent, the Greater Nanticoke Area School Board unanimously approved a one-year extension of the teacher contract at Thursday’s regular meeting. The contract was set to expire this August.

After the meeting Superintendent Ron Grevera said the agreement lets all teachers move up on the step/column matrix, but does not increase the amounts of those steps and columns. Teacher contracts guarantee increases each year for a set number of years (steps), and give raises for a set number of additional college credits earned above a bachelor’s degree (columns).

Those at the top of the pay scale get no raises unless they are negotiated into the contract, so the extension includes a $500 stipend for the 2021-22 school year it covers.

Grevera said the consensus of both the board and the union was that the pandemic made negotiations more difficult with social distancing and masking requirements, so a one-year extension made sense and gives ample time to resume negotiations for a replacement contract next year.

Grevera also announced the district is completing it’s slow return to full in-person lessons on Monday, with high schools students able to start attending classes five days a week. He said the district is still offering asynchronous online learning through its cyber school, but is no longer offering synchronous live learning in real time online.

In related matter, Grevera announced that the district has lost about 100 students this year who have opted to enroll in an outside cyber charter school, and that the district is hoping to find ways to get them back within the district. Parents and guardians of students in outside cybers will be receiving surveys to see what they are looking for so that the district can accommodate them, he said, and surveys may be followed up with a phone call.

Greater Nanticoke Area School Board extends teacher contract one year