District 93 teachers to get raises after temporary pay freeze

Teachers in Carol Stream Elementary District 93 will receive roughly 5 1/2 percent pay increases spread over the next three years as part of a new contract ratified by the school board.

Superintendent Bill Shields said Monday the two sides reached the agreement June 2, less than a month before the current four-year deal was set to expire.

"Both sides felt the rush to do it by this date," he said. "It wouldn't have been good for either side had we held off."

The Carol Stream Education Association approved the deal 192 to 81 on June 6 and the school board approved it unanimously Thursday. The contract, which takes effect July 1, will freeze teacher pay for the first half of next school year and then move it to the next step in the 2009-2010 salary schedule for the remainder of the year. That means a 1 percent overall salary increase.

Teachers will receive 2.3 percent increases in each of the next two years. Insurance benefits and work days will remain the same.

Under the new deal, the number of years teachers must serve in the district before putting in for retirement increases from 10 to 15. The pay increase from that point forward will be limited to 6 percent each year for a maximum of four years.

Negotiations started in January and Shields said both sides acknowledged the financial hardships faced by school districts throughout the state.

"There was so much mutual respect by both teams," he said. "It's a hard economic time out there and it's something we didn't have to say. We were very concerned with the taxpayer and wanted to make sure (the deal) doesn't put the district into a worse financial burden in the future."