D124 Teacher Contract Talks End With No Tentative Agreement

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Teacher contract talks in Evergreen Park Elementary School Dist. 124 took a productive turn on Monday but a tentative agreement has still not been reached. The union mediation team met with Dist. 124 board members for about four hours. Another mediation session is scheduled for Oct. 2.

“The District 124 Board of Education and the Union held a productive mediation session last night. The board is working hard to reach a tentative agreement with the union,” district officials said in a written statement.

A member of Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers 124 mediation team also told Patch that both sides had a “good discussion.” The union filed an intent to strike notice with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board last week, but does not mean that a work stoppage will occur. If an agreement cannot be reached, the district’s teachers, paraprofessionals and support staff could walk on Oct. 17.

The union represents 173 full-time teachers and 54 full-time professionals who work in the district’s four K-5 elementary schools, including Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest, and Central Middle School. Union members rallied outside the D124 administration building on 87th Street on Monday afternoon in support of EPFT124’s negotiating team.

Although details of Monday’s discussion were not disclosed, the Dist. 124 Board has offered to increase the proposed raise for all certified staff members in Year 2 of the three-year contract to $2,600, and increased its overall offer to include an average salary increase of 11.5% over three years. Further, the starting salary for non-certified staff members by more than 15% over three years."

The union mediation team confirmed the D124 board’s counter offer from the mediation session on Sept. 18. Linda Blaeser, a kindergarten teacher at Northeast Elementary School and the union's chief negotiator, said that despite the board’s offer, the district remains significantly below the state’s annual average teacher’s salary.

“We’d like to be competitive. There are some amazing people out there. We have some student teachers that we’d like to have stay, but we know they’re going to go someplace else where they can make more money if we don’t do something about it,” Blaeser said. “That’s the only thing we have left that we are negotiating and talking about.”

Union negotiating team member Tony Demma, a speech-language pathologist at Northeast Elementary Schhol, said the union compared district salaries to other comparable districts within the AERO Cooperative Special Education Network in south Cook County.

“We’re not comparing teacher’s salaries to DuPage or north Cook County, but drivable districts for our teachers when they’re leaving. These are the places they are going to. We’re going back to the table hoping to bargain a little harder.”

According to the latest information available from the Illinois State Board of Education school report cards, the average annual teacher’s salary statewide is $65,721, compared to the average annual teacher’s salary of $56,967 in Dist. 124.

Annual average teacher salaries in nearby elementary school districts include:

Kirby Dist. 140 - average teacher’s salary $66,264
Oak Lawn Hometown Dist. 123 - average teacher’s salary $59,910
Ridgeland Dist. 122 - average teacher’s salary $57,080
Cook County Dist. 130 - average teacher’s salary $40,961

D124 teachers and support staff went on strike for ten days in 2012. A potential teacher's strike would affect 1,900 students in grades K-8. If both sides cannot reach a tentative agreement, the earliest date that D124 teachers and paraprofessionals could walk on Oct. 17.