Walker Wolverines PTA

An Important Message from the Board President and Superintendent

Dear District 65 Staff, Families, and Community:

We have both lived in Evanston for many years having moved here with our families to enjoy everything Evanston has to offer, including outstanding public schools. We want to ensure that we remain a lighthouse district where professionals work and learn in an environment that embraces best practices and the most current advances in teaching and learning to help every child reach their full potential.

We are disappointed to share that last night DEC initiated what is called the public posting process under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. This is the initial step a union must take before it can go on strike (see FAQs for more information on this process). For nearly a month, a federal mediator has helped to facilitate our deliberations and narrow down outstanding issues so that an agreement can be reached. Despite our grim financial outlook, we continue to make offers and compromises in good faith and to respond to the needs DEC has expressed. Our offer of additional planning time responded to one of DEC’s top priorities and reflects our mutual commitment to high quality teaching and learning in District 65. Having been at the table as recently as yesterday, their action to initiate the public posting process is disappointing because we continue to make progress and have scheduled several bargaining dates over the next several weeks.

What does this all mean for District 65 staff, students, and families? With the initiation of the public posting process by DEC, the threat of a strike becomes more likely. A number of legal requirements and timeframes must be met (totaling at least 28 days) prior to a strike occurring. In addition, DEC is required to provide the District with a 10-day notice of intent to strike. Given these timelines, by our estimates, the earliest a strike could occur is at the end of November.

What comes next? While the public posting process is underway, we will continue negotiating in good faith, with our next session scheduled for November 3. The Board’s bargaining team continues to be fully engaged in these important discussions and will spend however long it takes to reach common ground and a fair agreement. Our students and educators deserve nothing less. While we are fully committed to resolving issues during upcoming sessions, we recognize the impact that a possible strike may have on our students and families. It is our sincere hope that there will be no disruption to our students’ learning. We are exploring ways in which children and families could be supported if a strike occurs. In the coming days and weeks, we will continue to provide updates on the status of this situation.

Sincerely,

Candance Chow, Board President
Paul Goren, Superintendent of Schools

An Important Message from the Board President and Superintendent
Dear District 65 Staff, Families, and Community Members:

We know that many of you are interested in the progress we are making in negotiating a contract with our teachers. We began working with a federal mediator on October 5 and will continue to do so for as long as is necessary to reach an agreement with our District 65 teachers. We are committed to staying at the table with the mediator so that she can help both teams prioritize, make tradeoffs, and narrow down remaining issues. We believe this is the only way to move forward with dispatch and remove the uncertainty our teachers and our families are feeling right now by not having a new contract.

Where are we now? The Board very much wants a contract that addresses teacher needs and is one that the district can afford. We missed out on negotiations time during June and July when the DEC team declined to negotiate. In an effort to move us forward, we opened our mediation session on October 5 with an offer to increase planning time from four to five days per week for elementary teachers – something we know has been a DEC priority since the negotiations over the last contract.

We did not do so lightly as the cost to the district, which is facing unprecedented deficits, is approximately $640,000 annually. As proposed, increased planning time would be introduced in year four of a four year agreement (2016-2020). This cost will increase our projected deficits in the coming years which start at $4.5 million in 2017-2018. Yet, if we are able to accrue savings in the initial contract years, we will be in a better position to assume the additional cost for planning time over the longer term of the contract. We made this significant concession to respond to the priorities of D65 teachers who are committed to our children and to the teaching profession. We view the planning time offer as the major next step to settling the contract. In order to do so, we look forward to working with DEC to resolve the remaining issues so we can settle the contract as quickly as possible.

Why is additional planning time so important? This time provides our teachers with more opportunities to work in teams, across content and grade levels, and with their administrators to address the needs of our diverse student body. Additional planning time is not cost neutral, yet it is something that we recognize our teachers consider essential to help them practice their profession in ways that will better support their students.

What comes next? Both bargaining teams met with the mediator on four occasions – October 5, October 11, October 13, and October 14. We scheduled two more sessions after parent/teacher conferences for October 26 and November 3. We are ready to meet thereafter as frequently as possible to reach an agreement with our teachers.

We look forward to the next mediation sessions where we can resolve the outstanding issues. We trust that DEC is also ready to move forward with us to settle the contract. We remain committed to reaching an agreement that honors our teachers and is in the best interest of our children and our schools.

Sincerely,

Candance Chow, Board President
Paul Goren, Superintendent of Schools