The New Trier High School board and its teachers have agreed on a new contract that is set to run through the 2027-28 school year.
At their June 5 meeting, the school board unanimously approved the new contract that contains salary raises starting with a 4.3% increase for the 2023-24 school year.
“We are proud of the collaborative process our negotiating committee used to reach this fair contract, which balances the District’s commitment to hiring and retaining high-quality faculty members with its financial stewardship on behalf of taxpayers,” District 203 Board of Education President Keith Dronen and New Trier Education Association President Teri Rodgers said in a joint statement.
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The union members voted separately to ratify the pact, according to an Illinois Education Association spokeswoman. She declined to provide the vote totals.
Highlights of the agreement include base annual salary raises for teachers of 4.3% in 2023-24 and 4% the following year, according to New Trier Associate Superintendent Chris Johnson.
Salary increases in 2025-26 will be determined by the December 2023 Consumer Price Index with a floor of 2% and a ceiling of 4%. Raises in the last two years of the contract will come from the December 2024 and 2025 Consumer Price Index with a floor of 1.5% and a ceiling of 3%.
Another part of the new contract states it will take teachers three additional years to reach the top salary, Johnson said. The pact also calls for changes in retirement benefits for some employees hired after Jan. 1, 2011 in conjunction with previous changes made to the state’s retirement system.
Johnson said there are approximately 400 teachers covered in the agreement working in a variety of roles including classroom teacher, special education teacher, librarian, social worker and psychologist.
In 2023-24, the average teacher salary will be $131,004, Johnson noted after the meeting. He added half of the teachers have 26 or more years of experience, which places them near the top of the New Trier salary schedule and 95% of the teachers have a master’s degree or higher.
Johnson said the starting salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree is $64,029 and the top salary for a teacher with 27 years of experience and holds a Master’s Degree and reached the district’s master and leader teacher status is $156,905.
Teacher salaries and benefits are approximately 50% of the high school’s roughly $127 million budget, Johnson noted.
The current agreement was set to run through the day before the start of the 2023-24 school year.
The agreement concluded a process involving more than 100 hours of negotiations and 20 sessions between January and May with the presence of an independent mediator.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.