New Teacher Contract Ratified By District 112 Board, Union

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The North Shore School District 112 board and the North Shore Education Association, the bargaining unit that represents its teachers, ratified a new five-year contract and signed a settlement agreement to resolve dispute over health insurance contributions.

The school board and the union, which represents 391 teachers and counselors in District 112, agreed last month on the tentative details of the contract during a fifth bargaining session with a federally appointed mediator. The agreement followed a Sept. 19 vote from union members to authorize a strike.

The new collective bargaining agreement replaces a contract that expired in August and will apply retroactively. It will remain in place until the start of the 2023-24 school year.

Superintendent Mike Lubelfeld said he was pleased to put the contract dispute behind him.

"I am very happy that we have a five-year contract that respects the teachers, the board and will allow us to focus on the needs of our students," Lubelfeld told Patch. "This is an exciting time in District 112, we will continue to inspire, innovate and engage."

Sheri Henkel, president of the teacher's union, said she was proud to have achieved the "strong" new contract.

"Overall, we are extremely pleased with the outcomes of this contract. I feel we made gains in each of the areas we set out to address for our colleagues," Henkel told Patch. "We were very appreciative of the community support and proud of the solidarity our union members demonstrated as we negotiated to solidify a strong contract going forward into the next five years. I believe this contract will truly be able to attract high quality educators to our district and hopefully, we will be able to minimize the loss of quality teachers who may leave for greener pastures."

The new contract resolves each of the sticking points described by teachers' and district officials' negotiations — salary increases, reimbursement contributions for continuing education and prep time. In each area, the final agreement appears to meet the demands that drove the union to authorize a potential strike.

Unlike in Chicago Public Schools, District 112 teachers do not receive automatic annual "step" increases for each additional year of service on top of annual increases to base pay. But they still receive "lane" increases for post-graduate degrees — so a teacher hired with a bachelor's degree who receives a master's will advance to the next "lane." District negotiators had sought to tie pay increases to the rate of inflation in the final two years of the contract. The union found this unacceptable, and the final agreement does not tie pay increases to inflation at all.

The final agreement includes average annual increases of 4.15 percent for each year of the deal for teachers on the salary schedule. For those deemed "off-schedule" when they do not obtain post-graduate degrees while teaching at the district, the average annual increase is 2.1 percent.

Over the life of the contract, that amounts to a compounded 22.55 percent increase for on-schedule teachers and a nearly 11 percent increase for those off-schedule. Off-schedule teachers will also be eligible for 6 percent raises in each of the last four years of their employment, increasing their pension.

Another point of disagreement during the months of negotiations that led to the new contract concerned control of planning time. The district sought to give administrators control of 90 to 120 minutes of teachers' 300 minutes of preparation time.

The previous contract said administration-directed planning time must be limited to 30 minutes and allowed for at least 30 minutes of additional team prep time. The new contract calls for 60 minutes a week of team planning time. If administrators have specific topics they want teachers to review or discuss during that time, they must share them in writing with the team except in case of emergency. Otherwise, the planning time remains directed by the teams of educators.

When it comes to reimbursements for graduate coursework, district negotiators had sought to eliminate the joint committee of teachers and administrators responsible for approving further education and instead use a list of approved educational institutions. Representatives of the teachers said that would inappropriately limit their options.

In the new contract, the joint committee, made up of half teachers and half administrators, will remain in place. In case of a disagreement, the committee will defer to the U.S. Department of Education's database of accredited programs.

The board also agreed to increase the maximum funding for graduate coursework from $100,000 to $140,000, to increase pay for voluntary professional development from $17.50 an hour to $30 an hour, to increase stipends by 4 percent a year, to increase extra duty compensation from $28 to $33 per hour and to increase parental leave from 30 to 40 days, Henkel said, assessing what the union achieved in negotiations.

Earlier:
District 112, Teachers Reach Tentative Contract Agreement
North Shore School District 112 Teachers Vote To Authorize Strike
Strike Authorization Vote Set By District 112 Teachers Union
District 112 Describes Sticking Points In Teachers Negotiations
Draft Budget Presented Amid Teachers Union Negotiations

At the Nov. 19 board meeting, the board also approved a settlement agreement with the union to resolve a dispute over health insurance premiums.

According to a joint statement from the district and the union, a dispute arose during the 2018-19 school year about how the district was calculating health insurance premiums under some of the plans and coverage options offered by the district.

"The Association filed two grievances alleging that the District had violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement, and an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, all of which the District denied," according to the joint statement. Negotiations ahead of the tentative contract agreement resolved those claims and avoided the costs of litigation, it said.

The first grievance was filed in December 2018 and had been set for arbitration in September. The second grievance and the unfair labor practice charge were both filed in May. The settlement includes a $117,000 payout, which will be divided up between 61 teachers, who will receive amounts ranging from about $50 to $3,500.

As part of the new contract, board members also agreed to increase the district's contributions toward health insurance. According to a statement announcing the highlights of the deal, teachers will continue to pay $500 a year for single health insurance, and starting in the 2020-21 school year, teachers will pay 45 percent of premiums for PPO family plans and 35 percent for HMO family plans.

Bennett Lasko, District 112 board president, thanked representatives of the teachers union for their work during the negotiation process.

"This was a very arduous process to negotiate the agreement. Long, hard negotiation," Lasko said. "I think it's a good contract. As we say in my business — I do business litigation for my day job — a good settlement, nobody walks away entirely happy. At least we got a good settlement."