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D-220 Board, Barrington Education Association vote to approve new contract
Brian Battle, president of the Barrington 220 School Board. | Curtis Lehmkuhl~Sun Times Media
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Updated: April 1, 2013 6:09AM
The Barrington 220 Board of Education voted to approve a three-year agreement with the Barrington Education Association on Tuesday night.
The teachers union met earlier that day to ratify the new contract.
Personnel and benefits were among some of the issues in the negotiations, which have been ongoing for the last 11 months.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 11 months since we started this journey,” Board President Brian Battle said.
The new contract, which will extend through August 2015, will give an annual increase of 3.3 percent per teacher during the duration of the contract. Mary Dudek, assistant superintendent for District 220 Human Resources, explained the increases will be in phases, with the largest increase given in the third year of the contract. She said the smaller increases in years one and two are meant curtail costs in an uncertain economic climate.
“Each year, the percent of the increase will be more,” Dudek said. “It will help overall in our financial outlook.”
The new contract maintains quality education programs, appropriate staffing levels and adequate class sizes as well as help to balance the district budget, Battle said.
The district plans on continuing their membership in their current insurance cooperative.
Battle said the agreement is commensurate with salaries and benefits packages provided to educators in neighboring districts.
“We do believe this agreement offers a competitive salary and benefits package,” he said.
Board members commented on the length of the negotiations, attributing varying projections of state and federal funding as one of the reasons the two sides were not able to come to an agreement sooner.
“We had a lot of healthy discussions,” Board Vice President Penny Kazmier said. “We never lost sight of the fact that these are teachers who we entrust our children to.”
Although the Board approved the agreement, one board member, Richard Burkhart, did not approve. All other board members voted in favor of the new contract.
Battle said details of the new contract will be posted online within the next two weeks.
“Hopefully, the final version of the contract will be posted in a week or two,” he said.
The previous three-year agreement between the board and the teachers union expired in August 2012.
