ALPENA — The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved a new contract for the district’s 93 instructional assistants.

Board Vice President Stacey Parr was not in attendance.

The one-year contract does not include a wage increase, according to Matt Poli, the district’s interim executive director of human resources and labor relations, but the instructional assistants will see a new matching contribution from the district toward their health savings accounts.

The contribution maxes out at $450 a year for an individual or $900 a year for families.

Poli said the negotiations were “wonderful” this year and that the bargaining unit was a great group to work with.

Deb Larson, UniServ director for the Michigan Education Association’s Alpena Office, previously told The News the contract was largely driven by the coronavirus pandemic and was the best that could be done with the current restraints of school funding.

“We just made it short and sweet this year,” she said. “We hope that we can go back to bargaining next year and things will be better.”

Instructional assistants, also called paraprofessionals, assist classroom teachers, work with special needs students, and supervise children in the cafeteria and on the playgrounds.

Larson said their jobs are going to look different this school year because of the pandemic, depending on how things go.

The instructional assistants ratified their new contract last month. The newly approved contract will expire on June 30, 2021.

The school board and the MEA have yet to reach an agreement with the district’s 32 bus drivers and six relief bus drivers. Their contract also expired on June 30.

“We still haven’t found a settlement for them yet,” Larson said. “We’re working on it.”

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.