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U-46 support personnel get raises, 4-year deal

The Elgin Area School District U-46 board this week approved a four-year contract for support personnel including average salary increases of more than 2 percent for employees with seniority.

The contract, which runs through June 30, 2020, covers 140 full-time custodians, maintenance workers and groundskeepers. It includes yearly raises of 2.75 percent the first two years and 2.25 percent the last two years for employees who have been with the district longer than five years - about 60 percent of the group. Increases for others will be based on step movement within the salary schedule - individual steps within the schedule will go up by 0.5 percent yearly based on the Consumer Price Index.

"It is pretty much in alignment with the other bargaining units, the teachers and all the other employees within the district," said Jeff King, U-46 chief operations officer.

Secretaries and paraprofessionals received increases between 2.75 and 3.5 percent in contracts negotiated two years ago. Contract lengths also are typically between three and five years, King added.

King said there will be significant savings over the term of the support personnel contract in health insurance and pension costs, though he could not say how much.

Support personnel salaries are between 6 and 8 percent of district's personnel costs, or about 1.5 percent of its more than $500 million budget.

School board members Cody Holt and Jeanette Ward voted against the contract Monday, citing objections to its length and guaranteed raises when facing uncertain state funding.

"Any contract that has raises above a cost-of-living increase is unsustainable without statewide structural reforms," Holt said. "This contract is locking taxpayers into four years of pay increases and speculating on savings from other portions of the contract. Contractual increases are the single greatest constraints we have in our budget."

The district is negotiating with its roughly 400 transportation workers - the largest employee group after teachers - and headed into mediation in a couple of weeks.

Contract negotiations for the district's 2,500 teachers begin next spring.

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