Kaneland school board narrowly OKs teacher contract

Kaneland District 302 settled on a new contract with its teachers Monday night, but barely.

The school board voted 4-3 to accept the terms reached by negotiations between district representatives and the Kaneland Education Association, which required the use of federal mediation. KEA members approved it Sunday afternoon, 290-3.

Board president Lisa Wiet and trustees Deborah Grant, Elmer Gramley and Jonathan Berg voted yes.

Secretary Cheryl Krauspe, Diane Piazza and Robert Myers voted against it.

"Personally I have just felt in this time of economic uncertainty and hardship, I think the numbers and dollars are excessive," Krauspe said.

She also said the contract did not address what both sides said they wanted to change: the starting pay of beginning teachers, as compared with those in eight districts surrounding it. Piazza also cited that. "We needed to address the top of the schedule. We needed to do something to the base. There has to be a change in the structure," she said.

Wiet said she voted "reluctantly" for the contract, saying she too thought the district's salary schedule and indexes need to be changed.

The contract calls for overall total salary increases of 4.86 percent this year, 6.21 percent next year and 5.6 percent the following year. Individual teachers may receive greater or smaller raises, depending on where they fall on the salary schedule, which takes into account years of experience and additional professional education, such as master's degrees.

Originally, the district proposed 4.5, 6 and 5.3 percent increases; the teachers wanted 5.8, 6.5 and 5.1 percent.

The starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree, no experience and no graduate education was set at $34,614 for this school year, rising to $36,650 in the third year.

"A key point was not salary, but structure," said Lynn McHenry, the union's lead negotiator. The union wanted to make sure addressing the issue of raising the base didn't negatively affect teachers with more experience and education.

"We recognize the economic times. We recognize this was not the time to close the gap," said Linda Zulkowski, the president of the union, which has about 360 members.

The union had given a notice of intent to strike but never voted to strike.