Voters in Hinsdale High School District 86 will see two propositions on their ballots when they go to the polls April 7.
The School Board wants to know the community’s opinion on whether teachers should be prohibited from striking and what criteria should be included in teacher evaluations.
Illinois and about 40 other states prohibit police officers and firefighters from striking, recognizing their importance to the public’s health and safety. The majority of the states that prohibit work stoppages by police and fire department personnel also prohibit strikes by public school teachers, including Indiana, Florida, New York and Washington.
District 86’s proposition is an advisory referendum, which means district officials are not legally bound to follow the direction of the voters.
The school district also does not have the right to change state law; that is for the General Assembly to do, which is why some members of the School Board did not support asking the question of their constituents.
Board member Kay Gallo said she expects a significant majority to vote that they would like teachers to be prohibited from striking.
“Now what do we do with that information?” Gallo asked, since it’s a state issue.
Board member Edward Corcoran sees the advisory referendum as an opportunity for residents to send a message to their legislators.
The second proposition asks if the performance evaluations of teachers and other professional employees in District 86 should include the employees’ classroom attendance and assessments by the students and parents?
Assistant Superintendent for Academics Pamela Bylsma said students fill out anonymous surveys about some teachers, but it’s not a uniform practice. Parents provide no formal feedback about teachers, Bylsma said.
Gallot said it makes sense to include input from students and parents, “but we have to have conversations with our teachers and discuss how to do this properly, so it’s not skewed results.”
The School Board previously has directed the administration to incorporate parent and student input in teacher evaluations, but the committee working on the framework for teacher evaluations has not presented a model yet.
“The public should weigh in on improving the evaluation system,” Corcoran said. “Teacher and staff tenure is the prevailing model and it is broken.”
Polling the voters is “the most American method to employ,” Corcoran said.
The second referendum also specifically focuses on classroom attendance being part of teacher evaluations. Evaluations report how many personal, sick and professional days a teacher or staff member used each year.
Professional days include district-required training, planning meetings with parents for students in special education and participation in other assignments and optional workshops.
Some board members believe the number of days a teacher is in the classroom is important to know, while acknowledging the absences may be district-approved.
Twitter: @kfdoings
