Hibbing Public Schools Board Ratifies Support Staff Contract After Negotiations

The Hibbing School Board unanimously ratified a two-year contract with AFSCME Local 480 on March 30, ending a months-long standoff with the union representing 115 district support workers that had brought Hibbing Public Schools within days of its first strike.

The agreement, covering secretaries, custodians, pupil support assistants, and IT workers through June 30, 2027, freezes wages in the first year and provides a 1% salary increase in 2026-27 for full-time employees. Part-time workers are compensated on a prorated basis tied to hours worked. Health benefits remain intact.

Acting Superintendent Carrie McDonald, who inherited the dispute after her predecessor resigned alongside the school board chair and business manager, said the deal closed within the district's constraints. "I'm happy with what the district was able to agree to," McDonald said. "I feel that we were able to offer a slight salary increase and preserve health benefits."

The terms are modest even by regional standards. The statewide AFSCME contract effective July 1, 2026, raises salary ranges by 1.75% for Minnesota state workers in year two. Hibbing's 1% second-year figure reflects a district McDonald herself described as being "on a path towards statutory operating debt unless significant measures are taken." In February, she told the board that a fresh budget review had found "significant variances," producing a projected $2 million deficit she warned could grow once audits are complete.

The arithmetic of support staff costs runs deeper than the wage line. District projections show a 1.5% increase across all bargaining units would cost approximately $535,000 annually, and rising health insurance expenditures are projected to add another $653,000. Together those pressures represent roughly $540 per enrolled student each year for a district of about 2,197 kids, against an annual revenue base of $38.6 million.

Those 115 workers provide services that vanish the moment a contract dispute turns into a walkout. Pupil support assistants staff classrooms, custodians keep buildings operational, and secretaries handle the administrative functions that connect families to the district daily. AFSCME Local 480 President Darryl Eskeli put it plainly in the weeks leading up to the agreement: "Our members keep this district moving. Students and families rely on the hard work we do every day."

The board held its contract vote at the same special session where it voted 5-1 to close Greenhaven Elementary effective June 30, 2026, collapsing the district's footprint from four buildings to three. Both decisions reflect the fiscal reality McDonald has been navigating since taking over: a district shedding costs while trying to hold its workforce together.

Whether the 0%/1% settlement is a stabilizing floor or a temporary concession will become clearer as the 2025-27 agreement nears expiration. With the deficit still being quantified and a school closure taking effect this summer, Hibbing's path to a levy ask or further program reductions may be shorter than either side cares to acknowledge.