It seemed Monday that the Rio Rancho Public Schools Board of Education's executive session was so unexpectedly long that the traditional Pledge of Allegiance to begin the board's special meeting was forgotten.

And then the special meeting dragged on for nearly two hours.

"That's the longest 30-minute meeting," joked Superintendent Dr. Sue Cleveland, following a four-agenda session that dealt with monetary issues. There was good news for teachers - in fact, for all school employees. A raise is forthcoming for the 2007-08 school year.

Teachers will receive 3 percent raises, although teachers holding master's degrees or doctorates will be bumped, respectively, 4 and 5 percent.

Clerical/secretarial, maintenance/custodial, security and instructional service providers will receive 5 percent raises. Educational assistants will receive raises from 5-10 percent, based on how many college credit hours they have accumulated.

Dr. Sue Carley of the district's Human resources Department, said her "side" had had pleasant meetings during the negotiations with the negotiating team from the Rio Rancho School Employees' Union

"What's it take to maximize training and experience?" Carley asked, satisfied with the raises. "And turnover hurts you."

Union president Carl Brady was happy with the way the negotiations had turned out, too, saying before the meeting, "We worked our butts off."

The negotiated agreement begins July 1 and runs through June 30, 2008. The 23-page document also includes definitions and policies concerning grievance procedures, the work day and work year, substitutes, class-size loads, staff development and more.

One of the four agenda items involved a rare disagreement among board members, as Marty Scharfglass said he was concerned about the safety of the district's students and motioned for a stricter set of qualifications for substitute teachers.

The other four board members, hearing from Drs. Sue Passell and Carley of HRD about how hard it can be to attract substitute teachers and why they had implemented some "perks" for additional training, voted 4-1 against Scharfglass's proposed amendment.

He wanted to ensure that regular subs - the district also has a category known as "emergency subs" - had all received advanced training, basically more than four hours of watching videos ranging from school violence and weapons to asthma awareness.

That advanced training qualifies subs for an additional $5 a day when they're called in to sub. Video viewing is available via the Internet, Carley told the board.

Substitutes receive $70 a day, which includes the $65 "emergency" sub status plus $5 for having completed a mandatory "enhancement 1" training session, which consists of two half-days of instruction. It includes training on how to recognize blood-borne pathogens and child abuse, plus how to handle "slips, trips and falls."

Scharfglass wanted to make "enhancement 2" mandatory for all subs, sans "emergency" subs, although those categorized as such would move to the regular list of subs and get the additional pay when they had completed viewing the online videos.

Also, subs holding a bachelor's degree can tack on another $5 and make $80 daily, while subs holding current state teaching licenses can earn $15 more, giving them $100 a day. Anyone hired as a "long-term" sub, for classroom stints of 10 or more days, earn an extra $15 daily.

Passell and Carley said they believed the $5 increments would be attractive enticements and subs would be willing to invest the necessary time to enhance their paychecks.

"Right now, I think the 'carrot' is pretty huge," Carley said. "We're never having enough of them."

Passell estimated the district utilizes "200 and change" substitutes each year.

Passell, Carley, Scharfglass and other board members agreed every teacher should receive the "enhancement 2" training before too long. Passell said plans are underway to enact that.

The final agenda item wasn't resolved Monday, but the board expects to conduct a special meeting on June 25 to decide whether it will again partner with Sandoval County for a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., or contract for its own. Or, it was mentioned, the board instead might opt to fund a grant writer to pursue avenues of additional funding.

There is a chance the City of Rio Rancho might opt to enter into a lobbyist partnership with the county and RRPS, Cleveland said, noting the new city manager, Jim Payne, was looking into that.

New board member Divyesh Patel said he preferred to hire someone locally to seek grants and "keep our dollars local ... There's a tremendous value in doing this."

Either way, Cleveland said the district should come out ahead, although lately President Bush has chosen to veto "earmarked" funds for education and other communities have come out with more money than Rio Rancho.

The board is scheduled to meet in regular session Monday at 5:30 p.m., although Schlichte said he and Scharfglass would be absent. A special meeting is expected to be called for the following Monday, June 25, when the members could formally decide what to do about the lobbyist/grant writer position(s).