MONROE - Support staff will get a 2-percent raise this year after reaching a one-year contract with the Monroe school district.

On Monday, Oct. 14, the Monroe school board unanimously approved a contract that gives members of the Monroe Association of Support Staff a 2.07 percent salary increase. MASS ratified the contract Thursday, Oct. 10. The 146 members of MASS include teacher aides, custodial staff, food service staff, secretarial staff, occupational and physical therapy staff. About 82 percent of the support staff, or 119 staff members, are full-time equivalent positions.

"It's a positive that they ratified it last week so we could move forward," Monroe School District Superintendent Cory Hirsbrunner said.

Support staff will get retroactive pay back to the beginning of this school year.

The district's Employee Relations Committee has a meeting scheduled with the Monroe Education Association today, Oct. 15 as members continue to work on hammering out a contract for teachers. Teachers in the district are still working under a previous two-year contract that expired June 30 that included a salary freeze and was agreed to before Gov. Scott Walker's Act 10 law that curtailed collective bargaining rights for government workers.

Hirsbrunner said she did not know when the contract with teachers will be finalized and declined to elaborate with negotiations ongoing.

Monroe Business Manager Ron Olson has said the cap for a base wage increase for teachers, based on the state's Consumer Price Index formula, is 2.07 percent. Olson said teacher unions can only bargain wages and can't bargain language. However, there are steps, experience and other costs for teachers that could get increases.

In its meeting, the board also unanimously approved the three-year $953,555 Carol M. White PEP grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The PEP grants are awarded to school districts across the country to bolster K-12 physical education programs, physical fitness, equipment and teacher training. Monroe is one of 60 school districts and one of just three across the state to receive a PEP grant award. Hirsbrunner praised the efforts of John Ditter, Monroe High School physical education teacher who serves as PEP grant manager, and Dan Kesyer, the district's director of curriculum and instruction who serves as the PEP grant coordinator, in securing the grant.

"We would not have got this grant if it wasn't for Dan and John and the countless hours they spent working on this," she said.

The district will receive $423,080 this school year, $268,702 in 2014-15 and $261,773 in 2015-16.

Some of the wellness and fitness activities being considered by the district include purchasing moveable bands for tracking steps, power walking and strength centers, Zumba, biometric screening, purchasing cardio and fitness equipment and setting up community fitness and wellness clinics through partnerships with Monroe Clinic, the Monroe fire and police departments.

"This will outlast all of us if we do it right," Keyser said.