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Friday, May 4, 2007 1:16 AM CDT
Board approves teacher contract with 4-percent raise
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Teachers in the Charleston school district will receive annual pay increases of 4 percent under the contract the school board approved Thursday.
The board voted unanimously with one abstention in favor of the new three-year contract with the Charleston Education Association teachers’ union. Board Secretary Kelly Miller abstained because her husband is a teacher in the district.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board decided to have Gail Mason serve as its president for the coming year, something previous President Kevin Oakley suggested.
The teachers’ contract vote followed a union ratification that took place on Monday. CEA President Karen Garrett said union members approved the contract “by better than 90 percent,” and she praised the negotiation process that led to an agreement before the school year ended.
“I am very pleased with it,” Garrett said. “I am thrilled to be done in the first week of May. I think that’s unprecedented.”
Superintendent Gary Niehaus told the board the pay increases are expected to be offset by the difference between the salaries of retiring and newly hired teachers.
“That’s the only way we can fix a number,” Niehaus said.
Both he and Garrett also mentioned changes in the contract’s retirement package brought on by new state regulations. Garrett said the changes will benefit teachers if they give early notice of retirement. Niehaus also said the contract increases health and life insurance coverage.
Meanwhile, Oakley nominated Mason, the board’s longest-serving member, as president, saying he thinks the officer’s role will be “critical in the next year” when the board has to hire a new superintendent. He said Mason will have more time to devote to the position than he would, adding that “she’s a great person for the job.”
Mason said “it’s a good time for me” to take the office because she’s taking a sabbatical from her faculty position at Eastern Illinois University. She said she thinks she’ll benefit from her experience working with other board presidents and she appreciated Oakley’s “vote of confidence.”
The board also voted to have Jason Coe serve as vice president, the position Mason held previously, and kept member Jeff Coon as board treasurer and Miller as secretary.
The meeting also included oaths of office to newly elected member Jerry Esker and to Coon, Miller and Oakley, who were re-elected to the board last month.
At the end of the meeting, the board had a closed session to interview finalists for the position of interim superintendent for the 2007-08 school year. A decision on hiring someone wasn’t expected Thursday but is scheduled to take place at the board’s regularly monthly meeting on May 16.
The board is opting for an interim superintendent for one year to give it more time to find someone for the position permanently. Niehaus submitted his resignation in March and is leaving at the end of June to become superintendent of the Normal school district.
Associate Superintendent Darryl Taylor is also leaving, as he’s taken the job of superintendent of the Lincoln Elementary School District in Calumet City. The board hasn’t yet decided how it’s going to go about filling Taylor’s position.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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No Clue wrote on May 4, 2007 3:25 AM: