Kaneland teachers get 3.99 percent raise

Kaneland school district teachers will get 3.99 percent raises this year, under an agreement approved by the school board Monday.

The raises are for the third and final year of a contract that expires in 2015.

The board approved the deal 6-1, with Tony Valente voting "no."

"I definitely think teachers deserve a pay raise," Valente said. "But we have to have a plan for how we are going to pay for that" by reducing other expenditures.

He said the only options the board was presented were to increase the property tax levy or to hold staffing level and increase class sizes. If pay raises could be done without increasing class sizes or property taxes, he would be willing to pay teachers even more, Valente said.

The contract covers about 330 teachers, librarians, social workers and school psychologists.

The 3.99 percent applies across all steps (years of experience) and lanes (educational attainment.) In 2013-14, a teacher with no experience made a base salary of $37,017, so in 2014-15, such a teacher would make $38,493.

A teacher with 18 years of experience, and a master's degree plus 36 or more additional hours of graduate education, made $82,610 in the 2013-14 fiscal year. Such a teacher would make $85,906 this year.

There were no overall raises in the first year of the contract, and a 2.7 percent overall raise in the second year.

The raises are retroactive to July 1. The contract ends June 30, 2015.