CHAMPAIGN — The Champaign Unit 4 Board of Education approved a new contract Monday night for support staff, including school nurses, teachers’ aides, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and custodians.
The agreement with the Champaign Education Support Professionals union (CESP) runs through June 2029.
Union members will receive overall raises ranging from about 5% to 9% for the 2026-2027 school year. Those percentages include the step increase employees receive each year they work at the district.
The contract also increases the district’s health insurance contribution and gives employees with three consecutive years of service 10 days of paid parental leave, among other changes.
CESP President Jim Flanigan spoke in support of the contract during the public comment.
“I dare anybody to go outside of this district and look through central Illinois or anywhere else and find a better contract than what we just ratified ourselves,” he said. “… I know there’s some negative people that say differently, but I think it was a very fair, just contract.”
Some union members expressed frustration with the contract — noting that a 9% raise for the lowest-paid workers, who make less than $18 an hour, is less than $2 an hour.
“When you make so little money, a 7% raise, a 9% raise, doesn’t equate to that much money,” said Jason Liggett, a safety supervisor at Centennial High School and a union member.
Liggett also said he’s disappointed that Superintendent Dr. Geovanny Ponce’s starting salary is $375,000, while some support staff make less than the living wage in Illinois.
“It’s kind of disheartening that they disvalue what we contribute to the students’ education so much that we’re so far underpaid,” he said.
A Board document outlining the newly ratified agreement states that wage schedules were redesigned “to reflect market conditions and target areas of need for the District.”
Board President Tony Bruno said after the vote that he sees the contract as good for the community and a way for the district to move forward, and he acknowledged that not everyone will be satisfied.
“I think that’s the nature of any compromise,” Bruno said. “Some people are going to love it, some people are going to hate it, but most people, I think, are going to think it’s a pretty good compromise.”
Bruno and the five other board members present voted unanimously to approve the contract.