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FIRST ON WGIL: Galesburg School Board Ratifies Teachers Contract
POSTED 6:38pm, UPDATED 9:48pm 8/24/09 There wasn't much doubt, but the Galesburg School District followed its teachers Monday night and ratified the teachers' new contact.

The District-205 board made the 6-0 vote during a special meeting. A statement issued by the District and the Galesburg Education Association indicates the district's nearly 275 teachers according to 2008 statistics will get pay raises of 1.5% each year of the two-year deal.

District-205 Human Resources Director Diane VanHootegem tells WGIL neither side could really come out and claim victory. "I don't think either side would come out and say they got everything that they asked for," VanHootegem said. You do have to make concessions, and I believe both parties from what Margaret Tolley had told me in conversations with her, and we both feel we came out with things that we needed -- not everything, of course, that we would want, but felt like the negotiations were what it needed to be, and that both sides would get what they needed."

Margaret Tolley was the lead negotiator for the G.E.A. VanHootegem says contract talks were made difficult thanks to the state budget and uncertainties over education funding. She says the agreed-upon contract makes some assumptions to that end.

The Illinois State Board of Education says the average teacher salary in District 205 is $53,585. The 1.5% raise amounts to an additional $803.78 a year.

(Source for some district information: Interactive Illinois Report Card)
08 25 09 by Newsroom
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