REGIONAL—St. Louis County School Board members offered a compromise to custodial staff at their meeting on Tuesday, in hopes of avoiding arbitration over a union grievance.

The union is upset over a previous decision by the board to hire a district-wide head of maintenance outside of the union contract. Under the compromise, the new position would remain exempt from union membership, but Superintendent Reggie Engebritson agreed to reverse her previous plan to eliminate the head custodian position at each of the of schools.

“The concern is that we can’t find people who have a boilers license,” Engebritson said. “It’s why the consolidation would need to happen.”

School board members Pat Christensen (Orr) and Christine Taylor (South Ridge) said they did not know the superintendent’s plan involved eliminating the head custodian position as the current employees retired.

“I want to see a head custodian in each school,” Cherry’s Lynette Zupetz said. “They’ll get it done because they know what needs to be done.”

Chair Dan Manick said he still wanted the district-wide position to go forward since he felt projects at the schools had fallen by the wayside without some sort of centralized management of facilities.

School board members expressed some differences over their understanding of the union’s grievance. Manick said he felt the core of the grievance was concern over the union exemption for the district-wide position, while Christensen felt the removal of the head custodian position at each of the schools was the biggest issue.

Board member Chris Koivisto echoed Manick’s sentiment, but said he felt the district was making the right move and that the restoration of a head of maintenance at each campus was a good move on the part of the board and the district.

Koivisto made a motion to deny the part of the grievance dealing with the district-wide position, which the board supported unanimously.

“They have to know we’re supporting them, but still need to be able to run the schools,” Koivisto said.

Engebritson said the restored head of maintenance position would not require a boilers license, but that applicants would be strongly encouraged to obtain one since the union pays for members to undergo the training.

The board’s decision now goes back to the union which can either accept it or force the district into arbitration.

In other business, the board:

Heard plans to implement a pilot program at North Woods to have a summer orientation day for incoming seventh graders. The program is grant-funded through the state to target schools with a high number of students from a racial minority group. The school was chosen because of the flow of students from Nett Lake to North Woods between sixth and seventh grades.

Heard about changes to Q Comp policies and state rule changes that would no longer allow Tier 1 teachers qualified as “Community Specialists” to teach without holding at least a bachelor’s degree. Engebritson said the district has three staff members who could be affected by the change. She called the state’s rule change, “dumb” and said she would be talking to state representatives in the future.

Voted to close fitness centers at North Woods and Cherry.