News Releases
District 15 Teachers’ Union Rejects Request for Impartial Mediation
Board responds by requesting Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board intervention
Following notification that the District 15 Classroom Teachers’ Council (CTC) has refused to agree to the Board of Education’s request to engage the services of an impartial mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), Community Consolidated School District 15 today submitted a formal request asking the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) to exercise its authority and mandate that CTC join the School Board in contract mediation. CTC is the bargaining unit that represents District 15’s 772 teachers and certified staff members.
The Board’s request was made under the state rules governing contract negotiations between a public school district and its employees (80 Ill.Adm.Code 1130.20(b)(2)). To encourage settlement, the rules provide that if no contract is reached within 45-days prior to the scheduled start of the school year, either party may request or the IELRB may act on its own to invoke mediation.
Today’s request to the IELRB reflects the growing urgency of the District’s efforts to reach a fair and fiscally responsible multi-year contract agreement with CTC. Since last fall, negotiating teams for District 15 and CTC have met on more than 20 occasions, totaling more than 100 hours. Though the Board and CTC negotiation teams have reached tentative agreements on several less complex, yet very important items, there are still challenging issues to be resolved.
On June 8, the Board of Education submitted a formal request inviting FMCS to provide objective, third-party mediation services to facilitate the contract talks moving forward and assist the parties in reaching an agreement well in advance of the start of the school year on August 23. Upon receiving the Board’s request, FMCS immediately indicated that a federal mediator was available to work with District 15 and CTC. However, FMCS declined to schedule or facilitate any negotiating sessions unless and until CTC joins the Board as a co-signer to its request. In interviews with the Daily Herald (“District 15 brings in federal mediator,” June 17, 2006) and the Chicago Tribune (“District 15 calls mediator in teacher contract talks,” June 20, 2006),CTC’s Chief Negotiator Lisa Nuss had indicated that the union was “willing to work with [the Board] to see where [mediation] leaves us” and that the “teachers are ready and willing to meet; we’re just in a limbo stage waiting for that mediator.” On June 29, FMCS received CTC’s formal notification that it was refusing to co-sign the Board’s mediation request, effectively rejecting the involvement of an impartial mediator.
Board of Education President Nancy Lee Carlson stressed that the Board remains committed to doing everything it can to move the process forward in a timely manner. “A subcommittee of the Board and CTC made recommendations that have helped our negotiation teams reach tentative agreement on many issues,” said Carlson. “The Board encouraged this group to continue its work to resolve additional issues in the same productive nature without the assistance of an impartial federal mediator. We were greatly disappointed at CTC’s refusal to continue these meetings.”
Carlson indicated that the Board is currently working to convince the union to re-engage in the negotiation process. “The fact that we can’t even agree about the importance of involving a mediator shows how much we would really benefit from the expertise an impartial mediator can provide,” said Carlson. “Our request to move to mediation was motivated by a desire to ensure productive negotiations that support us in reaching a fair, fiscally responsible contract agreement before students begin classes on Wednesday, August 23, 2006.”
Carlson said that while the Board continues to believe that mediation would be the most effective way to help resolve the remaining challenging issues, including compensation, health insurance and retirement benefits, it is currently working to re-engage CTC in the negotiation process and arrange meetings with the union as soon as possible.
Compensation is a particularly critical component of the negotiations. Teacher compensation generally has three components: base pay, experience pay (also known as “step”) and educational pay (also known as “lane”). Kevin Nohelty, District 15 assistant superintendent for business and auxiliary services, indicated that in the 2005-2006 school year, District 15 teachers received a salary increase of 3.75 percent on their base pay. However, the substantial majority of teachers also received a step increase. As a result, the average salary for District 15 teachers during the 2005-2006 academic year actually increased 7.13 percent, with some teachers receiving as much as an additional 8.86 percent. In addition to these average percentages, many teachers also received the aforementioned “lane” pay for educational advancement—often resulting in pay increases of more than 10 percent, with the highest receiving a 15.93 percent increase. In 2005-2006, the base salary for a starting teacher in District 15 was $37,705; average salary was $64,803 and the top scheduled salary was $97,484. These numbers do not reflect additional increases for eligible retiring teachers.
Updated information on the status of District 15’s negotiations with CTC will be available throughout the summer on the District’s Web site, www.ccsd15.net.
Community Consolidated School District 15 is the third largest elementary school district in Illinois, serving nearly 13,000 students in all or part of the communities of Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Inverness, Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg and South Barrington.
Elementary schools in the District include Central Road School, Frank C. Whiteley School, Gray M. Sanborn School, Hunting Ridge School, Jane Addams School, Kimball Hill School, Lake Louise School, Lincoln School, Marion Jordan School, Pleasant Hill School, Stuart R. Paddock School, Thomas Jefferson School, Virginia Lake School, Willow Bend School and Winston Campus–Elementary.
In addition, the District has four junior high schools, including Carl Sandburg Junior High, Plum Grove Junior High, Walter R. Sundling Junior High and Winston Campus–Junior High, and an alternative school, John G. Conyers Learning Academy.
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