District 204 approves raises for support staff
Support staff members in Indian Prairie Unit District 204, including secretaries, deans’ assistants, health assistants and teacher assistants, will receive raises over the next two years tied to the rate of inflation.
The school board voted 5-2 Monday to approve the two-year support staff contract, with members Christine Vickers and Dawn DeSart opposing the pact. Both said they can’t justify raises when the district just laid off teachers and other staff members to plug an $8.6 million budget deficit.
“I believe with all of my heart that what our secretaries and support staff do in each of our buildings is the glue, the cement, that keeps us all together,” DeSart said. “But this isn’t the time. I just don’t believe this is the time to be giving raises.”
Board President Curt Bradshaw called the contract a compromise because it also realizes $186,000 in savings from a more efficient medical plan.
“In economic times like this, when we are laying off people and we are reducing programs, it’s hard for taxpayers to swallow increases of income. Even cost-of-living types of increases,” he said. “This was a compromise of give and take.”
For the past three years, District 204 has faced tough times financially, the most recent caused by costs to implement state-required curriculum changes and to evaluate principals and teachers on student achievement.
Earlier this year, 160 full- and part-time teachers were laid off along with 59 full- and part-time staff members such as teacher assistants and secretaries. The district plans to hire back at least 80 teachers and some support staff to fill positions left open by retirement and job attrition.
Drops in state funding and the recession have caused an additional $30 million in reductions in the district, leading to cuts ranging from the elimination of 145 teaching positions to forgoing watering school lawns.
“The strongest part of me believes it is disingenuous and wrong to cry poor to our community only to increase salaries,” DeSart said.
Meanwhile, board member Mark Rising said he was pleased to see the raises were modest.
The contract will take effect in July and covers members of the Indian Prairie Classified Association, about 750 employees representing about a quarter of the district’s workforce. It will provide for raises of 1.73 percent for the 2012-13 school year and 2.29 percent for the following year, increases figured by using the rate of inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index.
In the first year of the contract, District 204 officials said starting pay for secretaries will increase from $13.85 an hour to $13.90, with other staff members’ pay increasing from $11.31 an hour to $11.36.
“We’ve been talking about difficult economic times for a while and we’re still talking about them,” Assistant Superintendent Karen Sullivan said. “We’re very appreciative of the collaborative effort and spirit that brought forth this agreement and we certainly couldn’t educate our students or run our schools without this very important employee group.”