By Chad Koenen

Publisher

A new contract between the Henning School District and Henning Education Association will see a slight bump in pay for teachers over the next two years, as well as an increase in insurance contributions by the school district.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Tuesday night, the Henning School Board approved the 2025-27 master agreement which shows a 2.45 percent salary increase in each of the two years of the contract and the school district will increase its insurance contributions by $1,416 in the first year and $504 in the second year. 

The contract also calls for the maximum career matching contribution was removed, updated language throughout and increased the amount of time a teacher can carry over from two days to three days. 

In addition to the teacher’s union contract, the Henning School Board has approved holding a joint work session with the Battle Lake School District about future pairing/sharing possibilities between the two schools. The request came from the Battle Lake School Superintendent Rob Nudell seeking to have a discussion on pairing/sharing for anything from staff, electives, sports, actives, CTE and more. 

The request came one year after representatives from the Battle Lake School District approached Henning about expanding the Otter Tail Central co-op for boys and girls basketball, as well as potentially volleyball. At a work session just last January four Henning School Board members spoke in favor of staying on Henning’s own for basketball and volleyball, while according to multiple reports from a Battle Lake School Board meeting at the time, several Battle Lake School Board members also had reservations about exploring future expansion of the Otter Tail Central co-op.

This time the formal request from the Battle Lake School District to explore future sharing/pairing options includes the potential of not only sports, but in the academic field as well. The Battle Lake School District requested a joint work session between the two school boards to discuss the matter and Henning obliged to have a joint work session. 

As of Monday a final date or location for the joint work session between the two school boards had not been set.

In other news

• Accepted $5,300 in donations including: $1,500 from the Ottertail Rod and Gun for the fishing league, $1,000 from the Ottertail Rod and Gun for the library, $750 from Lake Region Electric Trust for scholarships, $700 from Astera Health for SPED trips and $1,350 from various businesses and organizations for summer rec/swimming lessons.

• Accepted the resignation of Julie Westrick as speech coach. 

• Acknowledged the activities report that stated the junior high girls basketball season is underway and includes a good number of eighth grade girls, two seventh grade girls and a big group of six graders playing junior high. Gym space continues to be a challenge during the winter season with the junior high boys and girls having practice before school once a week on average and many youth programs requesting gym space as well. 

• Heard the principal’s report that highlighted a number of accomplishments by students including the regional hoop shoot, BPA regional competition and the walk in your shoes program that the fourth and eighth grade students are participating in to learn about challenges that people with disabilities may encounter on a regular basis.

• Heard the superintendent’s report that stated the enrollment is currently 404 students in prek-12 with a K-12 enrollment of 361 students, elementary parking lot improvements and options for the 2026-27 school calendar that includes an early start option that allows school district’s to start before Labor Day due to the late holiday this year. According to a survey shared by superintendent Melissa Sparks, 80.9 percent of the 47 staff members who responded to the survey were in favor of starting school on Tuesday, Sept. 1, which is one week before the traditional Labor Day holiday.