Rockford board approves tentative wage agreements for teachers and support staff

The Rockford Public Schools Board of Education on Monday approved two tentative agreements that the district negotiated with its certified teachers’ bargaining unit and its support-staff bargaining unit.

The board voted to adopt a tentative agreement covering the Rockford Education Association (REA), which negotiators said moves the district’s BA and MA starting steps in line with neighboring districts and — if approved in final contract form — would make a starting teacher in Rockford paid at a salary above $50,000. The district also presented an across‑the‑table raise of 4.25 percent applied to the REA wage table.

District staff then presented a tentative agreement with the Rockford Educational Support Personnel Association (RESPA), which represents food service workers, custodians, transportation employees, paraprofessionals and other classified employees. That settlement sets an overall 4.18 percent increase across RESPA but applies different percentages to subgroups based on market competitiveness: food service workers, identified by negotiators as the most underpaid relative to area comparators, would receive a 6 percent raise on that wage table while custodial staff — described as comparatively higher in the market — would receive a smaller, 3.6 percent adjustment.

Nut graf: District leaders described both agreements as the product of collaborative, non‑adversarial bargaining that aimed to improve recruitment and retention while using limited resources intentionally.

Administrators said the REA agreement’s two headline elements are raising the district’s step 1 for BA and MA teachers (so entry teachers would cross the $50,000 threshold) and applying a 4.25 percent wage-table increase. For RESPA, the administration said it used market data to distribute the 4.18 percent overall raise unevenly across classifications to target groups judged most out of market.

Superintendent Dr. Matthews introduced the items and turned the presentation to district negotiators. District materials and remarks credited both bargaining teams and singled out REA representative Sonia Andrews and RESPA president Amy Quiniones for their roles in the talks. Board members expressed support during discussion and the motions to approve each tentative agreement were moved and seconded on the floor; the clerk called the voice vote and the board approved both agreements.

The agreements were presented as tentative agreements (TAs). Administrators told the board they were bringing the TAs now because they had waited for clarity on state funding levels during the summer and early fall before settling on wage proposals.

Ending: Both tentative agreements were approved by the board for finalization. Administrators said they will return final contract language and any required ratification documents in subsequent meetings or under the process required by each bargaining unit.