It’s time to pay the piper for all those snow days kids got in Elgin School District U46 this winter.
Meeting Monday, the U46 board approved a final calendar for this school year in which students and employees will have to attend five more days into the spring to make up for the five days they got off during the winter because of snow and/or cold.
CEO Tony Sander said five snow days were used – on Jan. 7, Jan. 8, Jan. 9, Feb. 2 and Feb. 19. As a result, the school year will be extended so the last day of school for students will be June 2. Teachers will have a final institute training day on June 3.
The school board also approved two-year labor agreements with the unions representing its secretaries and paraprofessionals.
Board members voted unanimously to approve contracts with both the District U46 Educational Assistants union, or DUEA, and the District U46 Secretarial Association union, or DUSA.
The secretarial contract calls for a 3.5 percent pay increase the first year and 3 percent the second year.
The paraprofessional contract calls for a raise of 65 cents per hour, or about 3 percent, during the first year for home school liaisons and 55 cents an hour, or 1 to 4 percent, for other types of paraprofessionals. During the second year all will get a flat 2.75 percent increase.
Chief Operating Officer Jeff King said the last time the two groups negotiated, during the district’s financial tough times, those unions agreed to four-year contracts with raises averaging just 0.8 percent a year, or 3.2 percent over the life of the contracts.