District 15 School Board Approves New 4-Year Teacher Contract

The Community Consolidated School District 15 board unanimously approved a new four-year teacher contract at its June 13 meeting.

The final approval comes after a

"It was a very collaborative effort," said Timothy Millar, school board president. "There was a lot of great discussion and we worked very hard on solving the structural deficit issue, bringing back staff and keeping the educational quality in the district."

By reaching an agreement by June, Millar called it a "very positive step for the community" and said he believes the it will address the so that it will be eliminated in the third and fourth year of the contract.

"In contracts, you don't always get everything you want," Millar said. "And we didn't. And they didn't. And that's why I think it's a fair agreement."

While all seven school board members set the parameters for negotiations, the district’s negotiating team consisted of Millar, vice president Scott Herr and member Richard Bokor. Millar said the team was limited to three members so the board as a whole could have the flexibility to vote down a tentative agreement. Having four members on a negotiating team would be a majority.

"So typically you don't see more than two or three board members on a negotiating committee until maybe it gets to the eleventh hour where you have a big challenge and the potential for a stike," Millar said.

Board member Richard L. Bokor stressed the importance of looking at the agreement as a whole, calling it "a new-form partnership."

"I think both parties took leaps and bounds and faith in each other to get this agreement passed," Bokor said. "There were numerous times in the course of the process—at least in our part, I cannot speak for the CTC—where we almost broke talks off."

While the public will have to wait for the final contract to be published on the website and Millar declined to give a dollar amount to the savings realized, .

Highlights include:

• Average teacher increases, including step, are: 2012-13 — 1.08 percent; 2013-14 — 2.08 percent; 2014-15 — 2.14 percent; 2015-16 — 2.22 percent
• Late start or early release in the 2013-14 school year. An additional 10 minutes will be added to four school days and the late start/early dismissal will be 40 minutes in length, which is no decrease in instructional time. Teachers will use this time for collaboration and training, which will reduce the need for teachers to be released during the school day and using substitutes to fill those vacancies.
• Changes to insurance benefits that are projected to save more than $1.5 million annually.
• Second-tier salary schedule that will moderate salary increases for those newly-hired.
• Allowing lane changes only once per year, down from the current twice per year.