Hinsdale Township High School Teachers Lay Cards on the Table

The Hinsdale High School Teachers Association is going public with its latest offer in ongoing contract negotiations with the Dist. 86 school board.

Details of the teachers’ current offer are being released “due to the school board’s misleading public negotiations practices.” By making the community aware of the teachers’ latest offer, teachers hope to dispel rumors and produce a “competitive and reasonable agreement quickly,” the teachers association said in a news release.

“The board has repeatedly mischaracterized our offer publicly,” said Jeff Waterman, chief negotiator for the teachers said in the association’s statement. “In reality, we have made many concessions to the board already and are willing to accept many of their proposals with little or no modification. We remain firmly committed to negotiating a competitive and reasonable offer for our schools.”

The union’s bargaining team held a negotiating meeting with the board on Monday, immediately preceding the evening District 86 board meeting.

“We’ve been discussing this long enough. It’s time to get an agreement in place. Our students deserve it and our community deserves it. We hope the board will abandon their extreme positions and see this as well,” Waterman said.

The teachers attempted to schedule several more negotiations meetings with the board, but claim that the board was unable to commit to any future dates.

The teachers’ association filed an unfair labor practice complaint last week with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board alleging bad faith negotiation practices.

The Hinsdale High School Teachers Association represents 377 teachers, librarians, social workers and counselors at Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South high schools.

Members of the teachers’ association overwhelmingly authorized a strike in May.

Read the HHSTA’s current and latest offer to the Dist. 86 board.

HHSTA Proposal 09-08-2014