Votes start Friday on new District 204 teacher pact
Roughly 2,000 teachers in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 are set to vote Friday on a three-year contract to replace the expired deal under which they've been working this school year.
Paul Gamboa, president of the Indian Prairie Education Association, said teachers have begun reviewing the proposal and he's visiting schools across the district this week to answer questions in advance of the vote.
Teachers union and school board representatives in the district that covers parts of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield reached a tentative agreement last week after a previous contract proposal drawn up in May failed to gain teacher approval.
Gamboa said the union surveyed its members shortly after 85 percent of them voted not to accept the first tentative agreement.
That deal would have given teachers raises in each of the next two years, but would have eliminated post-retirement insurance and the 6 percent raises teachers generally receive in their last years of employment.
The survey asked teachers to spell out their top concerns with the proposal.
"We took that data and that's what we chose to address in the tentative agreement," Gamboa said.
Four issues teachers identified with the previous proposed contract were discussed during negotiations that started anew Aug. 13. Gamboa would not yet say what those issues are or how they were addressed.
If teachers ratify the tentative agreement on Friday, the school board is expected to vote on it during a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday in the Crouse Education Center, 780 Shoreline Drive, Aurora. Details of the proposed agreement are expected to be made public at that time.