Teachers in East St. Louis School District 189 have a new contract. Here are the details
Teachers in East St. Louis School District 189 have a new contract that aims to help attract and retain staff during an ongoing teacher shortage.
On Monday, the Financial Oversight Panel unanimously approved the three-year contract that retroactively starts in July. The contract had already been ratified by the union and approved by the board of education. Since 2012, the Financial Oversight Panel has had five state-appointed volunteers that work with the school board to help the district reach financial stability.
The biggest change from the last contract is that the district will begin to pay the employee portion toward the Teacher Retirement System. Superintendent Arthur Culver said District 189 was the only district in the area — and one of the few in the state — that didn’t pay the employees’ portion, which is 9% of their salary.
“That’s really hurt us with attracting and retaining staff,” Culver said during the Financial Oversight Panel meeting.
East St. Louis teachers had an average salary of $63,619 last year, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education. Corrected to account for the 9% that goes to the Teacher Retirement System and is typically paid for by the district, that average salary was $57,893, compared to the statewide average of $70,705.
East St. Louis schools will make up the difference over the next three years, paying 3% this year, 6% next year, and finally paying the whole 9% beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.
The district and union also negotiated to remove a stipulation for experienced teachers who were new to the district. Previously, incoming teachers were capped at a salary potentially much lower than their experience warranted.
For example, during the 2018-2019 school year, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree transferring from another district would have been capped at $52,006, regardless of how many years of experience they had, while teachers who had been in District 189 for longer could have made up to $74,866.
Due to budget concerns in 2013 and 2014, the district had pay freeze. Teachers who worked during those years and are still in the district will be bumped up the salary schedule. The new salaries will mean a pay raise, up to what it would have been if the pay freeze hadn’t happened those two years.
The new contract also includes:
A 1% cost of living increase to the base salary
A one-time $3,000 bonus for new hires teaching “hard to fill” middle and high school positions: math, science, bi-lingual and foreign language
Increasing the district’s annual allocation for staff tuition reimbursement from $55,000 to $75,000 per year
Granting contract teachers with national board certifications $1,000 per year
This story was updated at 9:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 30, to reflect that the new contract retroactively started with the 2021-2022 school year.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 7:00 AM.