Quincy School Board approves three-year contract with teachers

Teachers will receive annual 4 percent increases

QUINCY — The Quincy School Board approved a three-year contract with the Quincy Federation of Teachers and its subgroups Wednesday night.

The deal gives teachers annual 4 percent raises in each of the next three years.

The contract is expected to cost the school district an additional $20 million over the length of the deal, including $14.7 million in salaries and $5.3 million in health insurance benefits, accounting for annual 10 percent increases in insurance coverage.

The Board also approve salaries for administrators and non-union personnel. Quincy School Board Vice President Shelley Arns said full details for both deals will be released on Thursday as QFT representative Brandi Many had a commitment and could not attend Wednesday night’s meeting.

According to a joint statement released by the union and QSD 172 Thursday morning, this contract:

• Satisfies both the $40,000 teacher salary and $15 minimum wage mandates.
• Includes educators’ voice in decision making regarding insurance.
• Establishes a Student Discipline Committee.
• Gives all subgroups a 4% raise each year of the contract.

Subgroups will receive a dollar increase during the initial year of the contract to meet the $15 minimum wage requirement to make pay more competitive for hard to fill positions.

Bus drivers will receive a $5 an hour increase for the 2022-23 school year, while Food Services and Special Education Paraprofessionals will receive a $3 an hour increase for the 2022-23 school year and Security will receive a $2 hourly increase for the 2022-23 school year.

“There are a few exceptions to the union agreement,” Arns said about the non-union agreements. “There are staff in their final year of employment earning a retirement incentive…and also some non-certified (personnel) on individual, administrative contracts negotiated previously continuing through the upcoming school year that may vary from (the union’s) 4 percent contract.”  

The new contract begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2025. The previous contract was only a one-year agreement.

The School Board voted 5-0 on the contract. LaTonya Brock and Jim Whitfield were absent. Richard McNay participated in the meeting by phone in order to vote for the contract, so Board President Sayeed Ali asked to move the contract vote to the beginning of the meeting so McNay could vote, before leaving the call.