6.1% raises for U-46 teachers on table

Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers would receive, on average, 6.1 percent raises this school year and slightly smaller raises the next two years under a tentative employment contract, pending approval by the state's second largest teachers union.

The average teacher salary, then, would increase by about twice the rate of inflation.

The percentage increase includes across-the-board raises of 3.8 percent and a corresponding increase in the district contribution to teacher pensions.

The 6.1 percent also assumes additional pay bumps of 1.9 percent, the amount U-46 Chief Financial Officer John Prince has calculated the average teacher will receive this year for moving up the pay scale.

That movement is determined by a teacher's years of service and level of education.

For this school year, the proposed contract would cost the district an additional $8.7 million for teacher salaries, retirement benefits and stipends to teachers overseeing extracurricular activities.

That's a 5.4 percent increase over last year.

Under the new contract, a new teacher at the very bottom of the pay scale would earn $36,983, which includes the district's pension contribution.

A teacher at the very top of the pay scale would earn $90,337, including pension.

Salaries and benefits would increase again in the second and third years of the contract.

In 2008 and 2009, all teachers would receive raises of 1 percent, plus the rate of inflation, plus the standard increases for experience and level of education.

The new contract also calls for a new annuity plan, to replace the old retirement bonuses that retiring, longtime district teachers received under the expired contract.

The state put an end to the practice -- employed by U-46 and many other Illinois districts -- of giving educators 20 percent pay bumps before retirement, a move that increased teachers' pensions, and increased the state's pension obligations.

The new contract would circumvent those caps, through a complex plan that would allow teachers to collect 6 percent raises during their final four years of employment.

The difference between what teachers would earn under the old system and what the state allows them to earn under the new system would be placed in annuity accounts, the contents of which would not count toward a teacher's pension.

Prince predicted the new system would not cost the district more than the old system and would shield U-46 from having to pay penalties to the state for raises above 6 percent.

The tentative agreement does not provide specific parameters for health care, which was the most contentious issue during the 2003 contract negotiations.

Rather, the agreement stipulates that the District Insurance Committee, made up of union members and administrators, will design and monitor the insurance plan.

The committee has been overseeing U-46's insurance plan for nearly three years and has managed to rein in health care costs.

The committee recently voted to switch to a new health care provider, but members have not yet been told how the switch will affect their medical plans or their pocketbooks.

The district's 2,400 teachers will vote on the new plan on Oct. 15 by secret ballot.

The school board already unanimously voted to support the contract, pending approval of teachers.

At a special meeting for union leaders Wednesday, just 73 of 140 representatives voted to approve the proposed contract.