Dist. 158 OKs support staff contracts

With less than a week to go before students return to class, the Huntley Unit District 158 school board has approved a new agreement with its bus drivers, teacher aides, custodians and other support staff.

The board formally signed off on the three-year deal Thursday in a 7-0 vote. Aside from a few prefatory remarks, there was no discussion.

"It is good for the district, but I feel it's very fair for (affected) employees," Superintendent John Burkey said before the vote.

The agreement is a victory for the district at a time when state funding is a large unknown. The deal freezes salaries for the first year, then gives cost-of-living increases (no lower than 2 percent or higher than 5 percent) during years two and three. The agreement does not alter existing health insurance or pension benefits for the 400-member employee group, district officials said.

Board President Kevin Gentry said the two sides were able to quickly reach agreement on the contract because of their relationship of "mutual respect."

Union President Yvonne Tovar said this week that her members, who ratified the contract last week, were cognizant of the economic realities facing the district and placed a greater emphasis on job security than huge raises.

Significantly, the contract abolishes the previous salary schedule, which gave employees with less than five years of experience annual raises on top of their inflationary increases - something the district felt it could not afford.

Some district officials hope the agreement with support staff will serve as a template for upcoming teacher contract negotiations. The district tried unsuccessfully two years ago to get teachers to agree to raises tied to the rate of inflation. Instead, teachers get an overall 5.25-percent increase this year.

"We definitely need to have a conservative budget on our teachers' side," Burkey said this week. "I do believe in (an inflation) based contract ... for any of our contracts."