PAXTON, Ill. (WCIA) — It’s been a long time coming for Paxton-Buckley-Loda’s Education Association Union to come to an agreement for a new contract for their teachers.

Last week, teachers and the Board of Education came to an agreement after talks have been going on for months. The Union President, Amy Johnson, said that it was a very stressful time.

She said that they started negotiating for this contract back in January, and their previous one expired in June. However, it’s the one they were still working under all of this school year.  That was until they finalized their new, two-year, contract on September 20th. 

Johnson said that their new contract includes bereavement leave, maternity leave, and janitors and cooks are now on a pay scale. There are also bonuses for retiring teachers, if they bank their days, there’s a payout with a cap. Additionally, teachers now have access to full insurance for themselves. 

Johnson shared that these are things PBL teachers have never seen on a contract. It’s not just those improvements they’re excited about. Every teacher in the first year of the contract is getting a 6-8% raise depending on their level of seniority.

In the second year of the contract, each teacher will get a 6% or 7% percent raise on top of that.
Johnson said that over the past four years, the PBL school district has lost 75 teachers.

They’re hoping the new contract will help keep them in the district.

“It’s been definitely a win all the way around, language wise and money. We’re still not at the top of the money salary scale, but we are definitely competitive now, and that’s what we wanted,” Johnson said.

The two-year contract expires in June 2027, but Johnson said that they can start negotiating for the next one in September 2026.

Johnson said that she’s grateful for the support from the PBL staff through all of this. She said that the whole process consisted of a lot of going back to the drawing board, especially when PBL’s superintendent left in June. Their main goal was always the financial piece, Johnson added.

They were hoping to have something before August, but it didn’t work out. So, they had a march in Paxton to show unity just days before the 2026-2027 school year began because they weren’t willing to settle for what they felt was unfair. 

In September, Johnson said that the Board of Education went as far as what they thought they could go. After, she took that draft to the teachers for a straw poll vote, and they decided they weren’t ready to settle. And back to the Board of Education, they went for a ratification meeting, and they came to an agreement there. 

Ultimately, the new contract was finalized at a special meeting on September 20th.