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District 304 School Board OKs Teacher's Contract
The five-year contract has been officially approved.

GENEVA — The Geneva Board of Education and the Geneva Education Association, the teacher's union that represents District 304's 450 teachers, have formally ratified a five-year contract. The agreement was approved by the Geneva Education Association on Monday, Dec. 10, and by the Board of Education on Friday, Dec. 14, according to a news release.
The total amount in raises for the contract, which starts with the 2018-19 school year and continues through the 2022-2023 school year, is estimated at $6.1 million. This equates to an average salary increase of 19.6 percent over five years, which amounts to a 3.92 percent increase per year, according to a news release from District 304 Board of Education.
Teachers will also receive additional compensation for educational advancement as specified in the new contract, according to the news release.
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Changes were made to the structure of the district’s salary schedule, retirement plan, and extracurricular stipend payments. No changes were made to the district’s health insurance program, according to school officials.
In addition to salary and benefit matters, the Board of Education and the GEA agreed to changes and additions to certain working conditions in the best interest of the students, staff, school district, and community.
Members of the bargaining teams of both the Board of Education and the GEA have been regularly meeting since February 2018 in an effort to reach an agreement in the teacher's contract. The two parties butted heads over the structure of pay raises, which lead to a five-day strike earlier this month.
Find out what's happening in Genevafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
District 304 plans to post the entire contract on its website by the end of December.
PHOTO VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
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