Tentative U-46 teachers pact keeps salaries flat, increases class sizes

The tentative one-year contract for Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers would keep salaries flat and increase both class sizes and case loads.

Teachers, according to a PowerPoint presentation on the Elgin Teachers' Association website, would receive no base salary increase or step increase for years of experience in the district next year. Lane increases, raises given to teachers who have earned additional degrees, would remain in place. Benefit contributions will remain flat.

All elementary classrooms with 35 or more kids would get a teaching assistant, up from 30 in teachers' current three-year deal that expires this summer. Bilingual classes, capped by state law at 90 percent of the district's average class size, are entitled to a teachers aide if they have 32 or more kids.

The number of clerical aides, used to help teachers prepare classroom materials, will be reduced by 50 percent in the elementary, middle and high schools.

Long-term substitutes will be paid $172 per day - a $3 decrease from this year's rates.

District and union officials have not yet announced how much these changes are expected to save the district.

U-46, which expects to begin next year with at least a $41 million deficit, announced $29.6 million in cuts March 15. They included layoffs for more than 1,000 employees - 732 of them teachers. That number included all first-, second- and third-year teachers, as well as more than 70 tenured teachers.

Chief Financial Officer Ron Ally has said the district "over-RIFed" - made more cuts than necessary - to pad itself against funding uncertainties.

Negotiating about $10 million more in savings was identified as a target by district officials.

U-46 and the 2,700-member Elgin Teachers association reached a tentative agreement May 8, after six expedited bargaining sessions. Both sides brought few items - salary and benefits chief among them - to the bargaining table with the intent of reaching a deal quickly.

This year's negotiations saw a major departure from past talks. U-46 teachers went on strike seven times between 1978 and 1991. The last teacher contract negotiations ended in December 2007 only after a federal mediator had been brought in.

That contract gave teachers a 4.2 percent pay increases in the 2007-08 school year, 3.8 percent raises in 2008-09, and tied raises to the rate of inflation this year.

The union will present the details of the tentative agreement to its members Friday.

Teachers will vote on the contract at school sites Tuesday, May 25.