Teachers in Brookfield-Lyons School District 103 will get raises in each of the next three years after the school board and teachers union agreed to a new contract June 13.
According to a salary schedule provided to the Landmark by D103 Superintendent Michael Warner, teachers will receive raises of 3.75 percent in 2011-12 and raises of 4 percent the final two years of the contract, which expires on Aug. 25, 2014.
The full contract was not immediately available to the press. Warner said minor adjustments in contract language were pending approval by teachers.
The raises include adjustments for step increases, according to the salary schedule. Teachers can get raises greater than 4 percent by changing salary lanes with advanced degrees and continuing education hours.
For example, if a second-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree and 15 credit hours in 2011-12 earns a master’s degree prior to the 2012-13 school year, that teacher would see his or her pay go from $38,926 to $41,120, an increase of 5.6 percent.
The base pay for teachers in D103 has risen steadily since the passage of a property tax referendum in 2004. At that time, the starting pay for a newly minted teacher with a bachelor’s degree was less than $30,000. When teachers negotiated a new contract in 2005, they sought to get that number increased and did so. Over the three years of the contract negotiated in 2005, teacher pay increased 21 percent.
Beginning with the 2011-12 school year, the starting pay for a teacher with a B.A. will be $37,972. By the time the contract ends in 2013-14, starting pay for teachers in D103 will be $40,288 – a 23-percent increase from 2007-08.
The raises come despite two years of significant cost-cutting in the district by the school board, including layoffs of teachers and non-certified staff and some program cuts.
In exchange for the pay raises, teachers agreed to changes in both the length of the school day and to their health insurance plans.
“We feel that, plugging the numbers into our projections, we’ll be able to finance the program,” said Warner. “We feel the increase in the amount of teacher pay toward health benefits is a benefit to the district.”
Teachers will spend 10 more minutes per day instructing students, said Warner, beginning in 2012-13. While the amount of time teachers are required to be in the school buildings won’t change, students will arrive for class 10 minutes earlier.
Now students arrive at 8:45 a.m. In 2012-13 that will change to 8:35 a.m., said Warner. The district’s 3:05 p.m. dismissal time will remain the same.
“We still have to work out final details with the bus company,” said Warner. “But we’d like to have teachers spend more time on core concepts. We’ll develop a schedule for teachers over the coming year.”
Also beginning in 2012-13, teachers will start paying more for their health insurance premiums. The current contract calls for teachers to pay 10 percent of the premium for health insurance coverage. By the end of the new contract in 2013-14, teachers will pay 13 percent.
In addition, there will be a change in the PPO plan the district offers teachers. For new teachers who come on board in 2012-13 and beyond, if they choose a PPO option, it will be a health savings account (HSA) plan.
The introduction of the new PPO option is expected to save the district money, said Warner.
“HSA plans increase the deductible and decrease the premium cost by 20 percent that the district is now on the hook for,” Warner said.
Teachers can also choose an HMO plan for health insurance as they have in the past.
