West Aurora School District 129’s union office support staff will receive raises under a new five-year contract recently approved by the district’s board.
The West Aurora school board recently approved the collective bargaining agreement with the West Aurora Office Professionals Union that represents approximately 100 workers in the district.
The agreement for clerical workers is effective July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2030.
Under terms of the contract, support staff will receive a $2 hourly wage increase plus a stipend based on the years of service to the district in the first year of the contract in 2025-26, West Aurora Director of Finance Ryan Abrahamson said in a summary of the terms.
In each of the next two years, office staff will receive 6% hourly wage increases. Then, in the final two years of the contract – 2028-29 and 2029-30 – office workers will receive 2.5% hourly wage increases plus a hike set at half of the Consumer Price Index inflation rate.
“This is a culmination of some hard work and more importantly collaboration,” West Aurora Associate Superintendent of Operations Angie Smith told the board.
West Aurora Office Professional Association President Stacy Krisch recognized members of the union’s negotiating team.
“Through countless hours of preparation, we were able to present concrete ideas to the district negotiation team in what I believe to be the fastest negotiation process in history – a whopping three meetings,” Kirsch said. “We collaborated, compromised together and came up with new ideas and ways to strengthen and improve our bargaining unit.”
The union leader recognized the district’s negotiating team and the school board for its leadership.
“We thank the district negotiation team and the West Aurora School Board for your support of the West Aurora Office Professional Association and your dedication to ensuring we have the highest standards of working conditions in the area,” Kirsch said.
“West Aurora has become the leader for office professionals across the area with this new contract,” Kirsch said. “We are thrilled with the overall positive reaction from our membership as well.”
Only three days of negotiations “doesn’t happen without organization,” Smith said, in recognizing the union negotiating team.
“A huge kudos to you and your team for having worked through all those things ahead of time so we make really productive use of our time. We did come up with some creative things that will help with some other unions as we negotiate down the road,” Smith said.
“This does position us well,” she said. “We realize that often-times our office professionals are the first people that our students see and the first people parents deal with. It’s really important to us that we honor them as the valuable members of our team that they are but also that we put some things in place to ensure the training that they need, the mentorship that they need are all there to make sure we can keep our team solid.”
Smith recognized the district’s negotiating team as well.
“This really was a very collaborative process. We are excited to be done this far ahead. It is March and we already have an agreement for July 1,” Smith said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
