Homewood school board, staff reach contract agreement

The District 153 school board approved a three-year contract with the Homewood Education Association (HEA) at the Monday, Dec. 16, board meeting. The contract includes wage increases of 5% for the 2025-26 year, and 4.5% in both 2026-27 and 2027-28 years, with additional money toward insurance costs. Contract language also gave teachers the ability to add days to a sick bank and gave union representatives eight days to do union business rather