District 39 Approves Teacher Contract With Raises

WILMETTE, IL - The Wilmette School District 39 board of education and and Wilmette Education Association have agreed on a new three-year contract for district teachers.

Part of the contract calls for raises of between 2.5 and 4 percent each year until 2019.

The district's 333 teachers are set to receive base raises of 2.45 percent for the 2016-17 school year, 2.25 percent raise for 2017-18 and 2.20 percent for 2018-19, according to the contract's details. Those numbers are added to the CPI adjustments and a .75 percent related to schedule improvements.

The district says the raises are in line with the current practice of basing them on the Consumer Price Index

The CPI used for 2016-17 is .8 percent. For 2017-18, it is .7 percent and the CPI for 2018-19 remains unknown. For the first two years of the contract, teachers will receive an additional .75 percent related to schedule improvements being considered in grades K-4.

All these are added together to find the full raise. It will be between 2.5 percent and 4 percent for each year of the contract.

A district statement said the practice "ensures there is a relationship between salary increases (the largest component of expenses) and revenue increases (primarily based on CPI)."