U-46 has new teachers contract
It was the longest negotiation session in memory in Elgin Area School District U-46, but teachers in the state’s second-largest district now have a three-year contract for the 2011-2014 school years.
The school board Monday voted 5-0 to approve a successor agreement to the 2007-2010 contract after almost a year of negotiations with the Elgin Teachers Association. Board members Joyce Fountain and Jennifer Shroder were absent.
The union, which represents about 2,200 educators in the district, had ratified the agreement in an election last week. On Wednesday, teachers voted for the contract 1,225 to 604. That tally was a reversal from a previous vote in which union members overwhelmingly rejected the tentative agreement. Teachers had been working under a one-year extension of the previous contract since August.
Under the new agreement, eligible teachers will receive a salary increase between 2 and 4.5 percent. Step and lane increases for additional education and years of service will be available for eligible teachers all three years, while teachers also will receive a 0.75 percent base salary raise in the second and third years of the contract.
The salary increases will cost the district about $2.8 million for the current school year, $3.8 million in the 2012-2013 school year and $4 million in the 2013-2014 school year, U-46 Chief of Staff Tony Sanders said.
Sanders described the process as a collaborative effort that took 250 hours at the bargaining table to accomplish. Sanders highlighted several aspects of the contract, including a joint task force made up of administrators and union representatives that will find ways to transform the school day. The task force may not necessarily propose a longer school day, district and union leaders said.
“We believe that working in collaboration, we can really change the way the student day looks, the way the teacher day looks and be very proud of the new system we are going to create,” Sanders said.
In addition, the latest agreement aligns the district’s review process with Senate Bill 7, which makes seniority less of a factor than performance, Sanders said.
Board members did not discuss the contract before the vote, but several members applauded both sides for their hard work and countless hours. Although the negotiations were protracted, school board President Donna Smith said the time was needed to ensure both sides were heard.
“It is a good thing because we both get an understanding of each other’s needs and goals that we want to meet ... and that really helps us to work together because we really do all have the same goals,” Smith said. “We just have to figure out how to meet those in a way that is fair to everyone and within our budgets.”
ETA President Kathryn Castle said the new agreement is another step in moving the district forward.
“This district has a history of looking at innovation as an opportunity, not just a hurdle to overcome, and I hope we can find some common ground,” Castle said.
Castle said negotiations, which were the longest she could recall in her 26 years with the district, were protracted in part due to uncertainty in Springfield, while Sanders said the district had never negotiated under such trying circumstances. The circumstances, which Sanders described as a “trauma,” included the laying off of 732 teachers and massive budget cuts. Although more than 500 teachers were recalled, Sanders said the experience was a shock to the district’s system.
“The whole environment changed because of the economy,” Sanders said.