PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — One of the deals in the contract between Peoria Public Schools and Peoria Federation of Teachers Local 780 is that teachers will receive a raise.
The contract is for three years with a 6.5% raise in the first year and a 5.5% raise in the second and third years. The pay raise is retroactive to Aug. 1.
Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said the money for the raises is already in the budget.
“So it will be built in within our overall budget. We looked at the budget. That happens during negotiation, ‘You’re like can we afford this.’ And that’s why it took us a long time to get the numbers down. And get the numbers down to a point where we believe we could afford it without bankrupting the district,” said Desmoulin-Kherat.
When asked how concerned the administration was that teachers would actually go on strike Kehrat said she was not too concerned because she knew they could pull a deal off in the end.
