East Aurora School District 131 recently approved a new five-year contract that includes a pay hike with the union that represents teachers, support staff and office staff.
The contract is between the East Aurora Council IFT/AFT Local 604 and the East Aurora Board of Education. The agreement is retroactive to July 1, 2021, and ends June 30, 2026.
The new agreement follows a three-year contract with the union signed in November 2018, district officials said.
“It is a testament on both sides of the level of trust we have for each other,” East Aurora School District Superintendent Jennifer Norrell said of the five-year pact.
Both sides were in agreement that the previous salary schedule was “inherently flawed” with no logic for built-in increases, district officials said.
“Our goal was to develop an equitable salary schedule,” Norrell said. “We completely replaced the old salary schedule with a new one.”
Under terms of the new agreement, the average annual salary increase in the first year of the contract is 5.7%, 2.5% on average in the next three years and 3% on average in the final year of the contract.
However, some teachers and office and support staff members will get more and some will get less based on their place in the salary schedule, district officials said.
“We are happy with the contract,” union President Jeff Mleczko said. “Some benefits have been added back in that make the average increases better.”
Teachers, support and office staff eligible to retire will be offered 6% increases for up to four years. Those who already decided to retire at the end of this school year will receive the 6% increase.
There are other benefits, including ones for extra duty work.
“There were a lot of hours spent working out the details but it was very positive. We never reached a standstill,” Mleczko said of the negotiations.
Norrell was appointed superintendent in May 2018 when the union and school board had not yet settled on a contract.
A teachers’ strike in 2018 was averted “at the 11th hour,” according to Norrell and Mleczko.
The relationship between both sides in 2018 became “more contentious” as students returned to the classroom that year, Norrell recalled.
“We settled the contract hours before a strike was to kick-off. They had already filed a notice to strike,” she said of the 2018 negotiation process. “I vowed in my mind then that there would be change in how they trust us and that we work toward solutions.
“It’s been a long labor of love the last three years to improve,” she said. “The administration is not always willing to give them what they want but we are always willing to listen,.”
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic figured into the negotiations for the new contract, Norrell said.
“None of us had the emotional fortitude to go through a contentious negotiation process. We didn’t have anything left,” she said.
The five-year agreement will allow the district to focus on the education and support services of students with less distraction of having to return to negotiations, Norrell said.
“We will have a five-year stretch to move forward and focus what we are doing for our students,” Norrell said.
East Aurora School Board President Annette Johnson said the new contract is good for the district.
“We have a fair, long-term deal that benefits both the district and employees by providing financial stability across our district,” Johnson said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
