U-46 teacher contract now official

Passage of the Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers contract is now officially official.

The school board Monday night unanimously approved the recently negotiated contract - reached Dec. 18 after nearly a year of discussions between the district and the state's second largest teacher's union.

Despite its length, district attorney Patrick Broncato noted that the bargaining process was very professional. "(The district) is proud to be a part of the bargaining process," he said, noting that the agreement will be of "great value" to the future of U-46.

The new contract commits to a 3.8-percent raise for the 2008-09 school year.

Raises for 2009-10 remain tied to the rate of inflation, and could be between 2.5 percent and 3.8 percent, the contract states.

When put together, the pay raise and increases for experience and education, called step and lane increases, would give the average teacher raises of 6.1 percent in the first year of the contract, 5.7 percent in the second year, and between 4.4 percent and 5.7 percent in the third year.

John Prince, the district's chief financial officer, noted that administrators would receive 5.7-percent raises this year.

The agreement also mandates a teaching assistant for all elementary classes with more than 30 students. The original contract called for a teaching assistant in elementary special-needs classes of 30 and in any other kindergarten through sixth-grade classes of 32 or more students.

Class sizes at middle and high schools remain largely unaddressed, with the exception of additional physical education classes at the high school level beginning in January.

A class size and case load task force will be established to better look into those issues, the new contract says.

Tim Davis, president of the Elgin Teacher's Association, noted that while "it's good to be finished," there is also "much work to be done."

Retroactive pay raises will go into effect Jan. 30, Davis said.