School District 55 teachers and the School Board ratified a contract last week.
Teachers voted on Tuesday, and votes were counted on Thursday. The School Board voted on the contract Friday morning.
The contract is effective from July 1 to June 30, 2005.
Bargaining teams completed a tentative agreement on March 8 following the regular school board meeting. The teams completed the agreement without the mediator who had been working with the bargaining teams.
The contract includes language agreements on allowing teachers to use sick leave for family, the creation of a prep time committee, a new retirement system to replace early retirement, agreements on job sharing, pay dates and site councils.
The contract also shortens the current school year by two days to reflect the two snow days that had not been made up, saving the district teachers salaries for the two days.
The contract approves step increases for both years and a 1.25 percent increase to the salary schedule in 2004-05.
It increases the insurance cap from $485 to $500. The insurance cap is the amount the district pays for employee health benefits. The employee pays the remainder of the monthly rate. The new cap takes effect the month after the contract is ratified and runs through the end of September when the cap increases to $550 per month for 2004-05.