Teacher Contract Talks End With No Deal

Energized by the alleged tongue-lashing they received from the Dist. 124 school board attorney just hours before, the Evergreen Park teachers union walked the picket line for a third day in a row.

The striking teachers and paraprofessionals from the Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers strutted, danced, chanted and circled Central Junior High School banging on plastic buckets and blasting a generator-powered amplifier system with the union’s theme songs—Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business,” the Pointer Sisters’ “We Are Family” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”

The school district board and union negotiating team resumed their talks at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Central Junior High School. The teachers union’s negotiating team broke their picket line to meet with school board members until another neutral venue could be found for contract deliberations.

Illinois Federation of Teachers field services director Deneen Pajeau said Thursday’s discussions focused on salary and insurance.

“A few proposals went back and forth … There was a lengthy sidebar between the board president, board attorney, union co-president and myself. No agreement reached,” Pajeau said in a text to Patch.

Teachers and paraprofessionals from Dist. 124’s five public grammar schools will be back on the picket line Friday. Talks are expected to resume at 6 p.m. Friday, at a venue to be determined.

The teachers union and D124 school board have been deadlocked over such issues as health, salary and retirement benefits.

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