Two weeks after passing the first surplus budget in five years, the District 202 board of education on Monday approved 2 percent, across-the-board raises for administrators and non-union support staff.
The raises are retroactive to July 1 and affect 130 staff members, according to the district.
“We are very proud of the hard work our administrators and non-union support staff members do every day,” Board of Education President Roger Bonuchi said in a statement released by District 202. “They have had to make the same personal and professional sacrifices, doing more with less over the last four years, just like our teachers and union support staff. They deserve the same consideration and respect as their peers."
Community Relations Director Tom Hernandez said the raises will cost about $204,000 — which is $102,000 less than the amount budgeted for salary increases. The 2013-14 budget included $306,000 in additional salary costs, which would have supported a 3 percent raise for administrators and non-union support staff, Hernandez said.
The new budget, approved Sept. 23, shows an operating fund surplus of $960,000. The surplus comes after five years of what the district has called austerity measures, including the elimination of 345 full-time teaching positions since 2009. The cuts slashed expenses by about $42 million. Other cost-cutting measures include a 2009 salary freeze and increased health care contributions for administrators and non-union support staff.
Prior to the 2 percent raise, administrators and support staff got a 2.5 percent salary increase in February 2012. But due to the salary freeze, Hernandez said, there has not been any net increase in pay for those job categories since 2009. In a press release, he said the February 2012 increase set salaries back to what employees would have gotten in 2011, according to the employee salary scale.
Teachers got a 2.55 percent raise last year and a 1.5 percent raise this year, according to Hernandez. Union support staff got a 2.6 percent increase last year and 2.2 percent this year.
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