Schools Supt. Robert Sherman is expected to respond next week to a teachers union grievance filed to protest the fact that two teachers were coaching free.
The Education Association of Round Lake filed the grievance this month after the District 116 board authorized two union teachers to coach after-school sports teams without paying them.
Provisions in the union contract list coaching positions and the accompanying stipend for the work. Union representatives charge that the board violated the contract by allowing the teachers to coach free.
The coaches, who are teachers at Round Lake High School, had volunteered to coach the freshman boys baseball and freshman girls softball teams after the financially troubled school was hit by cutbacks. The teachers did not request compensation.
The teams were revived after being dismantled by the board last spring because no money was available in the budget to support freshman team sports. The district is on the state’s financial watch list because of its weak financial condition. The district’s deficit is more than $2 million.
Barry Gurvey, one of the volunteer coaches, said at a Board of Education meeting Monday that he disagreed with the grievance his union filed.
If Sherman denies the grievance, as expected, the union might appeal the decision to the full Board of Education, Sherman predicted. The board may opt to pay the coaches or eliminate the teams again.
