News Local/State

Champaign School Board Approves Teachers’ Contract

By Sean Powers
 

On Monday night, the Champaign School Board unanimously approved a new three-year contract for teachers.

The agreement includes step increases on a negotiated salary schedule, and revisions in sick leave to include nieces, nephews and partners in a civil union.

(Key provisions of the contract are listed below)

The teachers union ratified the agreement last week, after months of intense negotiations with the board. School Board President Laurie Bonnett said she is satisfied with the deal.

“I’m happy to be done,” Bonnett said. “I’m happy that the teachers overwhelmingly supported it, so that shows we were on the right path to reach a conclusion for a three-year deal. It’s best for the teachers and their families as well. And everybody can get back to what they’re supposed to be doing  - teaching.”

Champaign Federation of Teachers President Cathy Mannen said she is also happy with the contract. Mannen said one thing not included in the agreement that the union wanted was less time to have to do non-teaching duties that pull teachers away from the classroom.

“You know, it’s still an issue that we want to be working on,” Mannen said. “But as we worked to get to this tentative agreement that was something that our team decided to withdraw from the table at that point in time.”

 

The collective bargaining agreement includes the following provisions:

  • The parties agreed to revise language within the sick leave provision to include nieces, nephews and partners in a civil union as within the definition of “immediate family” for purposes of sick leave use.
     
  • The parties agreed to revise language within the military leave provision to conform to current state and federal laws as well as District practice.
     
  • For the 2013-2014 school year, the parties agreed that two plans would be offered, the POS-C 1000 80/50 Premium ($537) and the POS-C 2000 80/50 ($502).  The Board would contribute $537 per member per month toward the cost of employee health insurance. For the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, the Board will contribute the cost of any increase in the single health insurance premium up to an aggregate of 18% or $634 per member per month.  In addition, the Board will contribute the cost of any increase in the single dental insurance premium up to $35 per member per month.
     
  • The parties agreed to eliminate the Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) provided for in the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement.
     
  • The parties agreed to clarify language related to employee pension contributions to indicate that, should the amount required to be contributed to TRS by the employee be increased legislatively, the employee shall pay any amount over the employee contribution as of July 1, 2012.​
     
  • The increase negotiated to the salary schedule for the 2013-14 school year will be retroactive to July 1, 2013. The parties agreed that teachers on the salary schedule will receive increases in the following percentages:
  1. 2013-14 school year: Step increase plus 3.0% to base
  2. 2014-15 school year: Step increase plus 2.25% to base
  3. 2015-16 school year: Step increase plus 2.0% to base
  • Teachers who are “off schedule” will receive increases in the following percentages:
  1. 2013-14 school year: 3.0%
  2. 2014-15 school year: 3.0%
  3. 2015-16 school year: 3.0%
  • Non-novice teachers in their first semester of service shall be provided a Transition Mentor at the non-novice teacher’s request.  The Transition Mentor will be paid a stipend of $500 for the semester.
     
  • Instructional Technology Coaches will be given an extended contract of 12 days allocated before and/or after the school year to be determined by the appropriate supervising administrator.
     
  • All instances of extra duty compensation contained within the Collective Bargaining Agreement will increase from $30/hour to $32.50/hour.