Tentative U-46 contract deal reached, both sides say
Bargaining teams for the Elgin Area School District U-46 board of trustees and the Elgin Teachers Association have reached a tentative contract agreement, officials from both sides announced late Friday.
The tentative pact was struck Friday morning during a third session with a federal mediator.
It’s the second such agreement that’s been reached since the two sides began negotiations a year ago.
“The ETA team believes that the district has responded to member concerns,” union President Kathy Castle said in an email to membership Friday. “We also believe that we have honored the district interests as well.”
Reached by phone Friday night, Castle wouldn’t say how the new deal has changed from the old one, wanting to wait until the union’s membership had a chance to look it over.
Last month, members of the union voted down the first agreement 1,319-673.
Union officials said teachers had concerns with the length of the agreement, collaborative time, length of the school day, compensation, and conditions that would allow the school board to reopen the contract.
School Board President Donna Smith had said the first agreement would have reduced class sizes for the district’s youngest students, provided opportunities for teachers to be leaders of their own profession, given teachers a voice in transforming the school day to maximize learning, afforded most teachers a 2 to 4½ percent pay raise for the current school year, and continued to provide retirement bonuses to teachers who qualify.
The bargaining teams will finalize the contract’s language Tuesday, a day before the union’s governing body — the representative assembly — is expected to discuss it.
Teachers will be able to review the contract online Tuesday. The earliest they would take a vote is May 24, Castle said.
Teachers have been working without a contract since August, when a one-year extension of a 2007-2010 agreement expired.