District 2 reaches agreement with teachers

After a meeting on Wednesday with the Richmond-Spring Grove Education Association (RSGEA) School District 2 officials announced that a settlement was reached for teacher contracts. Unlike many previous meetings between the two groups, the meeting was not attended by a federal mediator.

Board President Mike Gullifor said, “We have reached a tentative agreement. We are confident of a positive reaction from the teachers.  We are looking forward to ratify the agreement at the next board meeting in December.” Gullifor said he could not reveal the final numbers until the agreement is examined by the lawyers.

The district has three schools: Richmond Grade School, Nippersink Middle School and Spring Grove Grade school. Over 1,600 children go to these schools. They are taught by 103 teachers.

Schools are financed by real estate taxes in Illinois. Increased enrollment can cause taxes to rise dramatically.  When the district introduced a referendum voters examined school expenses carefully. Many people accused the board of overspending. Two education referendums failed when 80% of the people voted against them.

During the negotiations with RSGEA the board mailed a letter to district residents explaining the reasons for keeping teacher raises and benefits in check. "We were told by the voters in no uncertain terms to keep our expenditures down, “ said Hain in an earlier interview. 

Average teacher salaries including board paid retirement have increased from $37,763 in 2001 to $48,625 in 2005. Teachers received 28% cumulative raises over the last three years.  Starting salary for a new teacher is approximately $36,000 including pension plan benefits.

In earlier negotiations the school board offered teachers a two-year contract with 1.4 per cent step increases for additional years of experience. If that contract had been accepted, the first year raise would have been 0.5 percent with a 1.5 percent raise the second year. RSGEA countered with a demand for a 5.4 percent increase in the second year that would include the step increase.

When negotiations fell through on Tuesday night, RSGEA called for a strike on Thursday morning unless they could come to terms with the school board on Wednesday. Letters were sent home to parents on Tuesday night explaining that the strike could occur. The school websites posted notices that the strike was imminent.

Posted on a website was this message to the people. “The Board in good conscience as custodians of taxpayer funds cannot accept this and believes the RSGEA has bargained in bad faith in this last round of negotiations by refusing to offer a counter proposal.  No new meeting date has been set, but the Board of Education remains ready to resume good faith negotiations immediately to avert a strike and settle the contract. “

Richmond resident Marilyn Burns has one child in the middle school and one in high school. Interviewed before the settlement Burns said, “I don’t feel that it is right to have the strike. It is upsetting to get almost no advance notice of a strike. I received the announcement letter just today for the strike that is to start tomorrow. I think we already pay enough for their health insurance. I think the teachers are great. We have a very good State scores, but to put our kids through this is horrible especially almost in the middle of the school year.”