Schools

EP Teachers, D124 Won't Budge on Final Contract Offers

Evergreen Park teachers, staff and community members blast D124 school board in public comments for protracted contract negotiations.

The Evergreen Park Elementary Dist. 124 school board meeting began with board president Kathleen Rohan presenting bouquets and certificates to retiring staff and tenured teachers on Wednesday that belied the contentious, behind-the-scenes teachers' contract negotiations.

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By the end of the evening, teachers, aides and residents were blasting school board members during public comments for stalling on a new teachers’ contract after months of negotiation.

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Contract talks ended abruptly on Sept. 10—the last time both sides met—with the teachers union bargaining team walking out of the session when the board failed to budge on meeting the union’s best and final offer.

The Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers filed a strike notice the next day. Both sides are scheduled to go back at it on Monday. The teachers union is standing firm by its best and final offer of Aug. 30.

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“This could get done Monday night with plenty of time to spare if the other side was willing to work on a compromise,” Dave Comerford said, spokesman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers. “The feeling from the union side is that the willingness was not there.”

Two bargaining sessions are scheduled for Sept. 24 and Sept. 26. Should both sides be unable to reach an agreement, the earliest teachers could walk is Sept. 28.

Watch the video of Wednesday's public comments during the D124 meeting.

“There is a number of concessions in the union contract offer,” Comerford said. “The board side came in hanging on to an extreme position. Fundamentally, the board wants to take things out of the contract that we believe will prevent Evergreen Park from being competitive with other school districts.”

posted on the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board website. The school board wants to compensate employees based on merit, as well as decrease employer contributions to the state-run teachers’ retirement pension.

The board has also proposed giving teachers a bonus whose students excel on standardized tests, to which teachers are opposed.

The teachers’ union claims that the $384,000 the district earns annually in interest from a $16 million surplus would compensate what teachers are asking for in salary increases.

The teachers’ union has blamed overly conservative budgeting for the surplus, in which predicted deficits often end up as surpluses padding the district’s nest egg.

D124 Superintendent Dr. Robert Machak said there has been no change in the district’s final offer.

“A budget is an evolving document and all school districts know that.” Machak said. “By nature is more prudent to be conservative with revenue for want of a worst case scenario.”

The district maintains a high financial rating with the Illinois State Board of Education that requires schools districts to carry a minimum 25-percent balance of its operating budget. D124’s fund balance is placed at 75 percent.

“Should we be criticized for that?” Machak asked. “It’s amazing how two groups can look at the same numbers and one side would we’re hoarding money and the administration would call it solid financial planning.”

During Wednesday’s school board meeting at Central Junior High School, Debbie Gibson, a teacher at Northwest School, told board members that “students shouldn’t be judged for one test and teachers should be paid based on one test.”

“We have families too,” Gibson said.

Only one resident spoke out in favor of the school board, stating that it wasn’t fair “to ask taxpayers to shoulder more of a burden than they already do.”

Seemingly lost in the negotiations are the school district’s paraprofessionals and teacher’s aides. Explaining what a typical day is like for a school health aid—compiling student medical files, dispensing medicine to chronically ill students and helping special needs children with toilet needs—Liz Phillips implored the school board to not forget the paraprofessionals in the contract negotiations.

“The support staff have salaries that would qualify us for the federal lunch program,” Phillips said.

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