District 16 Contracts Approved

Spring Lake Park District 16 School Board recently approved the contracts for several employees, which includes those who work as administrators, specialists in the healthcare field, and those who work with community services. The director of human resource, Ryan Stromberg, says that the settlement made was quite responsible. He says that the primary goal for both employees and employers is to simply prevent budget cuts from occurring. This means that everyone needs to live within their own means. The contracts were approved on April 10^th and were created as a way of helping employees to receive some sort of increase while still staying within the budget, especially since the budget is tighter than usual and it is not always easy to stay within means.

With a new contract set into place for the district, the schools several registered nurses will now be receiving an increase in pay of 50 cents per hour throughout their first year of employment. However, they will not receive an increase within the second year of employment which means their hourly wages will then remain the same. Even so, the nurses will still receive somewhat of a raise from 2011 through 2013. They will also receive a payment of $500 and contributions which will go towards their health insurance. This is something that the nurses of the district can appreciate.

Right now, there are about 20 employees in District 16 that are working as services workers. Service workers vary from pre-school teachers and assistants to staff members who care for infants as well as attendants in the parking lot. With the new contract that has been created, employees who are in their first year of employment and are working as services workers will now receive an hourly wage of anywhere from $12.21 to $17.35, which ultimately depends on the specific position in which the individual works. Pre-school teachers, especially those who have seniority, will earn a bit more than this, somewhere around $23.80 per hour.

Administrators will also see an increase of about 3.2 percent, which will go toward benefits as well as their salary. There are even specific set salaries for certain positions. The business manager will earn $133,500 per year. The human resources director will earn $133,500, and the community services director will be earning $118,000 per year.

Under the new contract, the salaries of cabinet members’ have also been basically equaled out with one another. The administrators have also not received an increase when it came down to contributions for their health care. However, after their second year of employment, the administrators will be receiving an additional $1,000, which is good news for them.