Settlement Reached, More to Do D94Teachers / WCHSTA
Friday, February 16, 2018
Having reached a tentative agreement with the District 94 Board of Education, the 141 members of the West Chicago High School Teachers Association continued working today. We wish to express again our gratitude to all who supported us throughout the bargaining process. Your involvement significantly contributed to reaching a settlement and preventing a strike, and we cannot overstate our appreciation for all you did.
As always, there is more to do. Within weeks, the West Chicago High School Support Staff Association will begin bargaining a new contract. The Support Staff includes program assistants (teacher aides), custodians, maintenance engineers, clerical staff, technology specialists, and a variety of other support personnel.
These employees are as critical to achieving the education of our students as are teachers, and they deserve a fair and responsible contract, too. We hope the Board of Education will present an offer demonstrating respect for and value of our support staff colleagues. The Teachers’ Association maintained all along that our proposals were within the Board of Education’s means, and Board President Gary Saake confirmed our assertion when he told the Daily Herald the agreement with the Teachers’ Association is “not something that's going to break the bank by any stretch." While wages and benefits will not be the only issues on the table, the bank not being broken, members of the support staff have the right to expect negotiations that will quickly produce a fair and responsible contract. The D94 Teachers will do what is necessary to support our colleagues as they work toward this end, and we hope you will, too.
Board of Education meetings take place the third Tuesday of every month. BOE committee meetings currently take place on an “as needed” basis. All meeting dates, times, locations, and agendas can be found at this link: https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicHome.aspx?ak=1001893.
We hope you will continue to be involved in the decision making process in our district. We will post further information about ways to do so in coming weeks. We trust you will be as supportive of our Support Staff colleagues as you have been of us, and we invite you to partner with us as we work to maintain and enhance the quality of our school and the opportunities provided to our students.
Sincerely,
Brad Larson
President, D94 Teachers / WCHSTA
Dear Parents and Community Members,
After nearly two years of bargaining, and working for six months without a contract, we are still unable to reach agreement with the Board of Education over a new contract.
At this point, in spite of the fact that it can afford to do so without raising taxes, the Board remains unwilling to agree to proposals that adequately address the district’s ability to attract and retain quality teachers. Nor has the Board been willing to discuss our proposal for a new article addressing safety, community involvement, and student learning conditions.
We have said all along that we would do everything we could to avoid a strike, but now we appear to be running out of time and options. Our final scheduled bargaining session will take place on Thursday night, and if no agreement is reached we will strike on Friday.
Please know that teachers have not made this decision lightly. A strike is the last thing that our members want, and we will work diligently to reach an agreement with the Board on Thursday.
We appreciate the support that parents, students, and community members have shown for teachers during this difficult period, and we still believe that your voices will be a critical part of any resolution to this situation. You can contribute to achieving a settlement by contacting Board of Education members to express your thoughts, by joining us for our bargaining march and rally on Thursday, and by attending next Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting in the Commons at the high school.
We will attempt to update you in real time regarding the status of our negotiations on Thursday. Please check www.d94teachers.org, D94Teachers on Facebook, or @d94teachers on Twitter for the latest information.
Brad Larson, WCHSTA President
Join us at the District Administration Office on Monday, February 12th at 4:30 PM for a Candlelight Vigil to show that #WeGoISWorthIT
Social Media How - To Below!
D94 Financial Explanation_FB.mp4Click below for a closer look at the district to district comparison chart from our video!
District to District Comparison Chart.pdfSave/Print our posters below!
A MESSAGE TO OUR COMMUNITY
The West Chicago High School Teachers’ Association and the District 94 Board of Education have been engaged in contract negotiations since May of 2016. In spite of efforts to reach a settlement, little progress has been made toward that goal. While settlement of a new contract is our most immediate goal, the Teachers’ Association is concerned about the direction taken by the Board of Education over the past several years and what that direction will mean for students and the community if it is maintained.
Through the last several cycles of contract negotiations, the Board of Education’s proposals have pushed for concessions from the teachers that would undermine the quality of our school and leave students and the community less and less well-served. While the teachers have absorbed many concessions, we have reached a tipping point. Either the Board of Education will take the actions necessary to maintain and improve our school’s offerings and services, or those offerings and services will be irreparably damaged by the Board’s actions.
This is about more than just the teachers’ contract, but under the contract proposals the Board of Education has made so far, District 94 would become a less and less attractive place to work. The Board seems willing to run the risk of being unable to attract high quality teachers and to accept a situation in which newly hired teachers stay in the district for only a few years – just long enough to get the experience necessary to move on to surrounding districts with better compensation and working conditions. The only teachers who would stay longer would be those unable to find work in other districts. This would be contrary to the best interests of students and the larger community.
Having made no tangible progress through the ongoing bargaining, the teachers have concluded now is the time to confront this crisis. Our staff is using the tools that we have, our union, our contract, and our relationships with parents and students, to raise awareness of the problems and address them. The Teachers’ Association took a first step in doing this when the membership voted to suspend volunteer sponsorship and coaching of student organizations, activities, and teams. This step addresses only one small issue among many being confronted by the teachers. In his statement of August 23, Superintendent Doug Domeracki said, “Our staff has been very generous with their time in support of extracurricular clubs, activities and sports, providing meaningful experiences that benefit the students of West Chicago Community High School.” We appreciate Dr. Domeracki’s recognition of what we do, and we wish the Board of Education’s actions reflected a similar recognition. Sadly, they do not. We hope the action we have taken creates new opportunities for communication among all stakeholders about the kind of school our students and residents deserve and want to have for the future.
Unfortunately, we believe things may become more difficult before the situation improves. We did not set out to create such a situation, and we will make every effort to avoid disruption and conflict going forward. This, however, is largely dependent upon the decisions made by the Board of Education.
Our goal is clear, and we believe it is in the best interest of the students and community. We are seeking a new contract that will enable the district to attract and retain high quality faculty over the long term. This is one of the steps necessary to making sure students in District 94 continue to receive the education they need and deserve. We need your help to do this.
We wish to be in touch with members of the community now and in the future. We are working to roll out several means for this. Here is how you can be in touch:
- Like/follow the West Chicago High School Teachers Association page on Facebook (search d94teachers on Facebook)
- Follow us on Twitter with the handle @D94Teachers
- Subscribe to our email list
- Submit any questions or concerns you may have
The District 94 Board of Education has regular meetings scheduled for the following dates:
Tuesday, January 16th
Tuesday, February 20th
Tuesday, March 20th
Tuesday, April 17th
Agendas and information packets for these meetings are available at this link:
Board of Education Committee Meetings are held on an as-needed basis. The dates of these meetings can be accessed by regularly checking the site at this link:
A statement from Brad Larson, President, D94 Teachers (WCHSTA) with regards to a Facebook post from VP Kathe Doremus
Last night, the vice president of the District 94 Board of Education posted a message to my personal Facebook account asking exactly what it is the teachers want, including salary and benefit details. In her post, Mrs. Doremus also stated how important the teachers of the district are. I responded this morning (see below). Almost immediately after I posted the response, the board member’s original post was taken down.
It would be inappropriate for the president of the Teachers’ Association and the vice president of the Board of Education to discuss the details of bargaining proposals on Facebook, and my response did not do so. The Teachers’ Association has been very clear and open with the Board of Education and the community about our goals. If Mrs. Doremus truly does not know what the Association’s goals and proposals are, that is an issue for her to take up with the Board of Education members delegated to their bargaining team.
Here is the response I posted this morning:
Hi Kathe! I suppose at the most fundamental levels, the members of the Teachers’ Association want what the Board of Education says about the value of its employees to be reflected in its actions, decisions, and contract proposals. We believe our most recent proposal is reasonable and currently sustainable. Having said that, the representatives of the Teachers’ Association have for several years been pointing out the need for the Board of Education to engage in a process that will ensure the long-term financial health of the district. The Board has declined to do so, relying instead on employee concessions and quietly cutting and skimping across the school budget in order to maintain annual budget surpluses well in excess of $10 million. The Board of Education has been been very responsible in making the books balance every year, but it has largely ignored its responsibility to ensure the future health and quality of the school. Our position is that students and teachers should not continue to bear the burden of the Board’s decision to ignore the larger problem. District 94 teachers want a fair and reasonable contract that will make our school attractive to high quality new teachers and value those new teachers so that they will be willing to stay in the district and use their knowledge and skills with our students across their careers. If the Board of Education believes it cannot afford this, the entire community needs to be informed of how that came to be the case and what must be done to address the situation.