District 200 teachers pay frozen in first year of new pact

A tentative two-year contract that freezes most teacher salaries for one year is likely to win approval Wednesday from the Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 school board.

If ratified, the pact will take effect July 1. It was approved last month by the union representing 1,082 district teachers.

Details of the contract were kept secret until Friday when they appeared on the district's Web site as part of an information packet provided to school board members.

The agreement freezes base pay and annual step increases for the 2010-11 school year. Teachers can receive raises for advancements in their education, but the contract adds restrictions to slow such movement on the pay scale.

Spokesman Bob Rammer said the district expects to save roughly $1.5 million as a result of the one-year freeze.

The second year of the pact includes a 1 percent increase on base salaries, but continues to freeze step increases.

Rammer said the district expects to save another $1 million as a result.

The proposed agreement also calls for changes in health insurance that affect, among other things, out-of-network deductibles and co-pays for office visits, specialists, urgent care, emergency room services and prescriptions.

Discretionary funds for teachers will be suspended for one year. Those funds are used for, among other things, reimbursing faculty members who buy materials for their classrooms, Rammer said.

Hourly rates for teachers spending extra time in school, either working directly with students or on education-related projects, will be reduced.

Officials said those modifications will save the district roughly $510,000.

The contract includes "significant" language changes, according to the report to the board, that limits teacher movement on the salary scale as a result of additional schooling; it also limits the number of credit hours a teacher can take to 18 a year.

Rammer said officials believe the combination of the new contract and earlier cutbacks approved by the school board will eliminate a projected $8.6 million deficit and allow the district to emerge with a balanced budget.

School board members adopted nearly $6.7 million in spending cuts last month and approved fee increases that will generate $415,000.

The district and union approved a three-year contract in May 2006 that expired at the end of the 2008-09 school year. Both sides agreed to extend that agreement to cover the 2009-10 school year. That extension expires June 30 and will be replaced by the new pact.