ALTON – The Alton School District and Alton Education Association reached a “tentative agreement” late Tuesday night.
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Details of that agreement, which was struck in the late hours of Tuesday evening after the district met with its negotiating team, will be released sometime Wednesday, Alton Education Association Professional Negotiator Jason Chapman said in a text Tuesday evening. Currently, that agreement will be taken to a vote within the association's membership Friday. Teachers in the district have been working without a contract since Aug. 2017 and two offers have been voted down since negotiations began last November.
The last offer from the district, which is detailed in a public posting on the Illinois Educational Labor Board, would give certified staff as much as $400 per salary cell and $1,196 in step increases during each year of the two-year-contract. Under that offer, non-certified personnel would also receive a $0.40 an hour raise. It was defeated by 68 percent of the vote.
Chapman said in previous discussions with Riverbender.com the district has received $1.5 million in additional revenue from Illinois's new evidence-based funding formula, which would be more than enough to pay teachers the rates they ask. Chapman said certified personnel would like to see that $400, which is $300 more than the original offer of $100 per salary cell, increase to $800.
Details on that most recent tentative agreement are expected to be released sometime today.
