About 1,700 students are out of class in north suburban Lake Forest, Ill., as teachers at Lake Forest High School went on strike this morning after late-Tuesday negotiations failed to produce an agreement, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“The Board is very disappointed,” the Tribune quoted a message emailed to parents as saying. “We feel that leaving negotiations until the final hour is unfair to our students, parents and community. The Board regrets that this timing creates such an imposition for our families.”
According to the Tribune article, at least one board member characterized the union as being unwilling to discuss talking points or enter into good-faith negotiations.
“There really weren’t any discussions,” The Tribune quoted board president Sharon Golan as saying before the strike. “We had asked for further information or talking points from the union but didn’t really get any, and so we offered to meet as soon as we could and we have not heard back.”
We note that final offers were posted by both the Board of Education of Lake Forest High School District 115 and the Lake Forest Education Association (IEA-NEA) on Aug. 24, according to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. A mandatory 14-day cooling-off period is required after final offers are posted before teachers can actually walk out on strike.
The issue seems to be salaries, including not only raises themselves, but a two-tiered salary structure in the board’s proposal that would put new teachers who start at the school on a different pay grid from that used for veteran teachers.
“We are fearful if we as a faculty accept a contract that says new teachers will earn less over the course of their career, our district will no longer be able to compete,” one union representative was quoted as saying. “A teacher could work here two or three years … and then look elsewhere.”
