A PDF of the District 304 press release is now attached to the article. The full contract will be published on the District 304 website by the end of the month.

Im missing any talk here of "Sunsetting" anything. Step and Lane still in place, pension spiking, reduced, but still in place. If GEA really gave a damn about new teachers, why are they getting next to nothing? And look, WE still get to pay for Carol Young's union time.
Well, at least the non-union teachers aren't getting shafted, though I'm sure Young and crew will find a way make them pay.

While I am happy the contract has been ratified, I am disappointed tuition reimbursement will be phased out in the next three school years. That can be an extremely attractive benefit to new educators not to mention a way to encourage educators to stay at the top of their field by continuing to be current on trends and such in education. Sad.

http://www.glenbard87.org/Files/Human_Resources/Salary_Schedule.pdf

starting salary alone has a 10,000 dollar difference... good luck attracting good high school teachers

(same demographics, same great students, same "great" community support)

Jim there are more than enough quality teachers out there looking for work. We will not have a problem filling any vacancies we have.

Phasing out tuition reimbursement...what a mistake! Every district I have ever worked with has a great reimbursement incentive. Why would any new teacher come to Geneva knowing that they will not get supported for furthering their education? We will end up getting the bottom of the barrel. Wait and see...this will not attract the great new teachers out there...Heneva will now be at the bottom of their list.

I'm happy a contract has been settled, but also think some form of tuition reimbursement would be fair. They could have reduced the reimbursement to classes that are apporpriate for the grades/ courses the teacher is teaching. I'm afraid the encouragement for teaching new and innovative things will disappear. I'd prefer not to have a 20 year teacher still teaching in a method/ standard that they were taught 20 years ago. I think I'd like to see that added back with some guidelines three years from now. Possibly with a cap on how many tuition reimbursements can receive over the course of their career.

Starting teacher's salary only goes up $79 over a THREE year period????
What are you people doing to our schools??? We will no longer be competitive!
Those "Hungry" teachers that many of you talked about will lose their appetite when they see the salary schedule...They will look to other school districts.

Most of the private sector stopped paying for additional schooling years ago. If you go back for an additional degree like a masters it is on your dime, and there is no guarantee you will receive and increase in pay. As i read it any teacher can continue their education get their masters and receive the accompanying financial benefits for the remainder of their career thru lane advancements. Oh and by the way, this is a 3 year contract. There is nothing to say that if things are better in 3 years much of what we are discussing here could be back on the table. Its called shared sacrifice folks. I am not overjoyed with the contract signed, however i believe it is a reasonable comprise understanding the times we are in.

It is too bad that the leadership representing the union members focused only on the teachers who are retiring and manipulated the others to basically give up everything so the retiring teachers could win. They made the teachers look bad in the community, while they worked to selfishly negotiate for the retirees' benefits. Spiking is so illegitimate that it is laughable that unions, claiming to represent fairness could get away with this stuff. The union leadership negotiated a deal for themselves and for retirees - they shafted the younger teachers and showed that this had nothing to do with attracting new, younger teachers - it had to do with spiking salaries to get a pension based on fraudulent figures - scam the system and teach others that scamming is wrong. Makes you want to work very hard to dismantle the union - they screwed their own members.

I think a FOIA request is in order for determining how many emails (ie. Geneva citizens) to the BOE supported the elimination of the 6% salary spike. I think this should have been the number one or two priority after a pay freeze. I think Carol mentioned one time that approximately 50 teachers will retire over the next few years so they can look forward to that nice salary spike.

Post retirement benefit? I guess I should take reference to the ESPN football crew, "Come on, man!"

so one year of no raises good, 2 years of raises ? not so good , no tuition reimbursement good, in a couple years we will have to revisit this and the next contract could be tough if the economy does not improve, Giving teachers near the end raises is silly and makes no sense and increases the pension liability, we will pay for it somehow/somewhere and if not though Geneva school taxes then State taxes,

So, what did the tax payer's get in this "negotiation?" A one year salary freeze? Tuition reimbursement phased out? .....Glad to see someone was protecting our interests.

I think some commenting readers are missing key components to the salsry portion (or the summary is poorly written): You must analyze this in three subsections: salary, step and lane. The salary aspect has actually been frozen for 2 years and the third year it is only 0.2%. If that is not a misprint, then that's nothing. Even for a $100,000 teacher, .2% is just $200 bucks. The step aspect has been frozen for one year but exists for years 2 and 3 (@2.65%). Finally, the lane aspect is not frozen at all. In years two and three it is restricted to just one lane but in year one, they can move as many lanes as they qualify for.

All in all, the fact that the salary aspect has essentially been frozen for all three years (except for .2% in year three) is quite a feather in the BOE's cap, IMHO.

I think the BOE is fooling itself if it thinks they can attract and KEEP new hires with no tuition reimbursement and no step and lane movement after this contract expires. Geneva may have been a Camelot for teaching, but sit back and watch the mass exodus of experienced teachers in 2015 and very few incentives to offer their young replacements. I can imagine new hires getting their feet wet, then leaving for greener pastures in our neighboring communities within a couple years. Very sad for our community.

Before everyone goes off on the BOE, ask yourself these questions. Did you know about step & lane this time last year? How about salary spiking - did you know about that? The taxpayers paid 70% of the union president's salary while she did union business. Did you know that? If you didn't say yes to all of these questions, then the contract is worthwhile because now you are educated for the next contract.
Lets test Jim J.'s theory on the salary being frozen for 2 years with a comparison of a $100,000 salary in the old vs. new contract. The salary the old contract would have provided in 2012-13 is now given in 2013-2014. Though you are paying more in 2013-14, to the teachers it is what they would have gotten a year earlier. In that sense it is a freeze to the teachers. An interesting way to look at it.

Old Contract
Year 1 $102,650
Year 2 $105,370
Year 3 $108,162

New Contract
Year 1 $100,000
Year 2 $102,650
Year 3 $105,576

Savings
Year 1 $2,650
Year 2 $2,720
Year 3 $2,586
Total 3 year savings equals $7,956 per teacher at a $100,000 salary in the 2012-13 school year.

If anyone thinks they could have done a better job, there are 4 seats open in April that you are welcomed to run for.

Today and tomorrow, lets be thankful for an agreement. Friday we can start working on a 0% tax levy for homeowners.

Happy Thanksgiving to Genevans and their families.

Bob,
Under the 2011-2012 Contract if someone was making $100,000 they would have had to have been past step 22 on the salary schedule and therefore would only have had a 1.5% increase on their previous years salary to look forward to. Under the new contract freeze the 1st year and then $1,000 increase year 2 and 3. So a more accurate comparison would be the following.
Old Contract
Year 1 $101,500
Year 2 $103,022
Year 3 $104,567

New Contract
Year 1 $100,000
Year 2 $101,000
Year 3 $102,000

Savings
Year 1 $1,500
Year 2 $2,022
Year 3 $2,567

I know you would appreciate the clarification

Anyone with complaints on how little the new educators will make under the new contract should direct their inquires to Carol Young and the GEA. Both of the last two BOE offers had new teachers getting $40k in year two and over $41k in year three.
The BOE was offering to reduce tuition reimbursement from 70% down to 50%, over the length of contract, not eliminate it like the GEA has now agreed to.
So, how does this attract new, top-notch educators to Geneva?

Oh my gosh! Can we really be talking about Geneva not being able to attract the best teachers? A couple weeks ago, it was all about how a lower salary will saddle us with the worst teachers. Now it's the elimination of tuition reimbursement. We better start offering free lifetime ice cream benefits or the only teacher Geneva will be able to attract will be the drop outs from South Eastern North Texas A&M Tech.

The district is still over $300 million in debt. Good luck getting out of the hole.