Although a teachers strike deadline passed without incident last week, tension continues to mount in Prospect Heights School District 23, with district officials asking teachers to give up their building keys.
Teachers said they were caught off guard last week by the district memo, which asked them to turn their keys in to their principals at the end of the day and to leave their lesson plans in a visible place on their desks.
“That was a curve ball,” Scott Mayer, a union spokesman, said of the memo. “But it’s only going to galvanize the people whose keys are being collected.”
Board President Bill Caputo said district officials distributed the memo because teachers had not agreed to give 48 hours notice of a potential strike.
“We can’t have 1,800 kids sitting out in the snow because the teachers aren’t there,” said Caputo, who added the district only wanted to be sure pupils would be accounted for if they came to school and a strike had been called.
Meanwhile, teachers met with representatives from the Illinois Education Association late last week to discuss their strike options. Teachers and IEA officials spent that meeting discussing the legal details of a strike, and what resources the teachers will have if they need to set up a communication center, Mayer said.
Teachers and board members appeared to be making some progress last week when they agreed to the number of teachers to be covered by the contract. But the salary issue remains a sticking point, with each side accusing the other of manipulating the numbers.
According to Rick Ewanio, District 23’s business manager, the board’s three-year contract offer includes a 3.4 percent raise the first year, 4.2 the second, and 4.2 the third year. The union is requesting 7.1 percent the first year, 4.7 the second and 3.7 the third.
