Sangamon Sun

Micah Miller, board vice president of Springfield School District 186, is pleased that the Springfield Education Association approved a new contract.

"I just wanted to take a second and say how proud I am of how both sides came together," Miller said. "You know, SEA, they had a lot of folks at the table. District 186 there were a whole lot of people that were there doing the hard work before I even got there. So, you know, I think this has taken longer than any of us wanted, but we listened to a lot of concerns. We did our best to balance the interests of teachers, employees and those of the taxpayers. So it's a good contract. I'm really proud of everyone that got us here."

He thanked the people who worked on the contract leading up to the vote.

"There were a whole lot of people that were there doing the hard work before I even got there," Miller said. "So, you know, I think this has taken longer than any of us wanted, but we listened to a lot of concerns. We did our best to balance the interests of teachers, employees and those of the taxpayers. So it's a good contract. I'm really proud of everyone that got us here."

The superintendent shared that the Springfield Education Association had ratified their contract earlier in the day before the school board meeting with 42% of the association members attending the meeting to vote on it. The "yes" vote was about 325 with 176 "no," Miller said. The board and the association had been conducting contract negotiations from the beginning of June until the end of October.

The negotiations ended with various agreements and terms. The board agreed to increase salaries and honor faculty with multiple years in the district, while still maintaining a balanced budget and improving their financial profile. There are other improved financial aspects and working conditions across schools in the district. There will be increased salaries varying from 5% to $1-2 per hour for all levels. 

Kindergarten classes will be capped at 25 students per class, first grade at 24, second grade at 25, third through eighth grade at 28 and middle school will be capped at 30. If the district runs out of classroom space and need to amend these numbers, they will do additional work to support those teachers. They also made many other changes to staffing and benefits in order to retain and attract more school faculty in all areas.