Dist. 300 teachers' aide deal approved

The Community Unit District 300 school board signed off on a new, five-year deal with its teachers' aides Monday.

Monday's vote ratifies the deal the teachers' aides, also called paraeducators, voted to approve last week. Paraeducators provide additional teaching outside of regular classroom instruction, possibly focusing on students with special needs or helping students who speak a different language. They are not typically certified teachers.

The five-year contract replaces the three-year agreement that expired June 30.

The new deal will be retroactive to July 1 and run until June 30, 2013.

The new contract will give the aides a 4.88 percent pay raise this year and 4.5 percent annual raises for the next four years, according to the district.

District contributions toward their health insurance will remain the same, according to the district. The district will cover 80 percent of single coverage premiums and 70 percent of family coverage premiums.

The new deal also boosts the district's tuition reimbursement for paraeducators from $70 to $86 per credit hour.

Michele Meyer, president of the paraeducators union, said the agreement was a fair deal for the roughly 370 members of the union and comparable to contracts in other school districts.

"We're very pleased," Meyer said Monday, after the board approved the contract. "It's a very fair deal."

The district and the union started contract talks in December 2007.

Meyer said while this year's negotiations went into overtime, they were efficient compared to the last round, which took two and a half years.

"We were still negotiating," Meyer said, explaining the delay this year. "We needed more time."

Board President Joe Stevens praised both sides for their serious approach to negotiations this year.

"It was a successful and very - cordial, collegial atmosphere," Stevens said.