A tentative four-year contract; retroactive to July 1, 2023; has been signed between the Danville Education Association and the Danville District 118 School Board. DEA members are scheduled to vote on ratification of the contract by the end of this week, with the school board scheduled to ratify the contract at their next meeting.
Plenty of pleasantries were exchanged during the Wednesday evening school board meeting. District 118 Superintendent Dr. Alicia Geddis stated that it was a challenging; but very cooperative and satisfying negotiation.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: I think the Board of Education came to the table with the spirit of we wanted to show how much we value our staff. We recognize, you know, with inflation; that many of their needs needed to be met, and we wanted to do the best job that we could for them. We had a meeting of the minds. It was long and it was tough, but it was well worth it.
DEA president Alan Rivers says he’s pleased with the final results; and added that one of the biggest successes was some verbiage adjustments when it comes to dealing with students.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: It was long; it was hard. A lot of times it was very long. But, yes, everything turned out well. And I’m hoping we can still work together in a very positive manner. We got a lot of language this time that we hadn’t gotten in the past, and I think a lot of people will be happy with it. (Give me an example.) Around discipline. It’s just something that we’ve never had in a contract. We had a little tiny bit, but there’s a lot more now in the contract about that; and things around for the staff that wasn’t there before.
The next District 118 School Board meeting is October 25th.
