October 2, 2018

BESPA and the Board of Education Announce New Collective Bargaining Agreement

The Batavia Education Support Professionals Association (BESPA) and the Board of Education of Batavia Public School District 101 have reached an agreement on a new two-year contract that will run from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2020. The contract contains a total salary increase of 4.23% in the first year and is tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the second year.  

“One of the Board’s key objectives was to establish a minimum wage of $13 per hour,” said Tony Inglese, BPS101 CFO and chief negotiator for the Board of Education. “We weren’t able to achieve that objective in full, but we’re close. BESPA employees perform important and essential duties that support educating our students each day, and we have a duty to ensure that they are compensated fairly.” 

In the first year of the contract, individual employees will earn a minimum increase of 3.0%, with an average increase of 5.2%. The largest increases will be earned by some of the lowest paid employees in the District.

Other notable terms of the agreement include improving processes related to employee transfers and reductions in force, and improving the overall clarity and readability of the contract.

“We’ve made the first step in raising the starting wage for our lowest paid members and negotiated a fair raise for all of our other members,” BESPA President Tim Beckers said. “Both the administration and BESPA have a long history of working together in the best interests of the students. This agreement is another example of that commitment.”