SOUTH BEND — Bilingual education specialists in South Bend schools will receive wage increases after a recent move to recognize the employees as a bargaining unit.
During a board meeting Monday, July 13, trustees approved a memorandum of understanding between SBCSC and bilingual education specialists within Teamsters Local 364. This comes after the board voted in late May to recognize the employees as a union, allowing them to enter into bargaining with the district.
According to the memorandum of understanding, bilingual education specialists are now included in the agreement for office personnel. Under the agreement, they will receive raises retroactive to Jan. 1, 2026.
Although SBCSC officials did not say how much more individual bilingual education specialists will make under the memorandum of understanding, Matt Lawson, general counsel for the district, said the total impact on the district’s budget will be around $28,000.
According to the office personnel agreement for Aug. 1, 2024, through July 31, 2026, that trustees passed in November 2024, employees in the bargaining unit received a $1.50 per hour raise effective Aug. 1, 2024, and another 25-cent raise effective Aug. 1, 2025.
The approval is part of a larger trend seen recently within SBCSC of recognizing various groups of employees as new bargaining units with Teamsters Local 364. The board previously voted to give the district’s security staff a large pay raise, and trustees also approved a move to include instructional aides and kindergarten aides in the paraprofessionals’ bargaining unit.
Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Rayleigh Deaton at rdeaton@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Newly unionized South Bend schools bilingual ed. specialists earn raise
Reporting by Rayleigh Deaton, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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By Rayleigh Deaton, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
