Previous contract negotiations between the Champaign Federation of Teachers and the Champaign Unit 4 School District nearly resulted in a strike.
This year, the two parties have reached an agreement without any strike threats. The union also secured a major win — 4.75% minimum raises for the first year, 5.50% in the second year and 5.25% for the third and final year.
“This is big for us. We’re really excited about it, and we hope that people in neighboring communities that are educators see this and we’re going to attract the best teachers,” said CFT Co-President Mike Sitch.
The Unit 4 Board of Education voted for the contract Monday evening. The union and district reached an agreement two weeks ago, and union membership approved the contract on Sept. 3.
“I was impressed by the raises myself, because as a university employee, and when you look at the current climate, raises are hard to find,” said Board of Education member Fatima Ahmed before the meeting. “Jobs are scarce right now, and when I saw the type of raises that we were giving our teachers, it really made me feel really hopeful, really happy that we prioritize our teachers.”
Ahmed was involved with the negotiations. She is a new board member, and she said she was impressed by the respect both the district and teachers showed one another during the process.
The contract will be in place for three years from July of this year to June 30, 2028.
What was different this year?
According to Sitch, the union was prepared.
He said he and other union leaders both worked to make sure there were “no surprises” at the bargaining table.
“We had our ducks in a row. We had all kinds of committees working on language. I think we made it really clear to the school board.”
Negotiations with CFT and the Champaign Educational Support Professionals were top issues among board candidates during this year’s election. CFT met with the candidates before the election as well and published a voter guide.
Sitch felt the pandemic hampered the process of negotiating the last contract in 2022.
The previous board wanted the Champaign Federation of Teachers contract to include more class time in order to close achievement gaps. Teachers, exhausted on the heels of COVID-19, felt they could address disparities by more effective teaching.
CFT members voted to authorize a strike, but negotiations averted the strike at the last moment.
The school board has had substantial turnover since then. Six of the seven board members were elected this year or in 2023.
What else is in this contract?
The Board of Education published details of the contract in the agenda for their Monday meeting.
The contract rolls back the “Early Out Mondays” in the previous board-union compromise that shortened one school day a week for students to give teachers professional development time. Many parents and incoming school board members said the experiment created stress for parents arranging childcare.
Sitch said the contract is also only the second he is aware of in Illinois, after Chicago Public Schools, to offer paid parental leave.
“If you’re a young teacher thinking about finding a school district that can honor that … we’re pretty excited about that, and we recognize that’s a big lift for the district too,” Sitch said.
The contract also includes provisions meant to align with the district’s desire to improve Special Education programs, like increasing pay for teachers who write individualized student plans outside of the work day.
Sitch said this is one step towards determining appropriate workloads for Special Education teachers.
“It’s a big deal to get some acknowledgement of that in the contract, but I can tell you our Special Educators in Unit 4 definitely don’t think that’s enough in terms of managing some of the things that they have to do,” Sitch said.
The base salary for a brand new teacher last year was $48,380. After a 4.75 percent raise, that teacher would make $50,678.