District 203 teachers getting pay bump
Teachers in Naperville Unit District 203 will receive average raises totaling 10.2 percent over the next three years, although the cost to taxpayers to fund those increases will rise only about 6 percent over that same period, officials said Thursday.
Both the District 203 school board and the teachers union have approved the new three-year pact, but refused to release copies of the contract until all parties have signed it.
District officials said Wednesday night the size of the salary increases would average about 6 percent over the life of the deal.
They backtracked Thursday morning when Associate Superintendent Dave Zager released a summary of the pay increases that show teacher salaries in the district actually will rise an average of 3.4 percent in each of the next three years. The largest jump will come in the first year of the deal, which begins July 1, when teachers receive a 2.35 percent base salary increase in addition to a 1.9 percent step increase for a total of 4.25 percent. In the second year, the total increase is 2.91 percent and in 2015 teachers will receive a 3.05 percent increase.
Other district costs associated with teachers, however, will decrease over the same period due to attrition and the ending of some retirement incentives, Zager said.
As a result, the district will save an average of 1.52 percent in teacher costs in each of the three years thanks to retirements, the end of the local retirement enhancement program and elimination of the district’s subsidy for the state’s early retirement option.
The net result, Zager said, is that the district’s payroll costs will increase 1.89 percent in each year during the course of the contract — or roughly 6 percent over the life of the deal.
The union’s roughly 1,350 members ratified the agreement on May 14 with 89 percent of the membership voting in favor.