Schools
District 181 Provides Update on Teacher Contract Negotiations
The District 181 Board of Education and Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Teachers' Association (HCHTA) jointly provided an update on negotiations.
The Community Consolidated School District 181 Board of Education and Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Teachers’ Association (HCHTA) jointly announced that negotiations for a new teacher contract are going very well, and are expected to continue through August. Representatives of the Board and the HCHTA remark that the process has been extremely collaborative and are confident the contract that is ultimately presented for approval to the HCHTA membership and Board of Education will be a “win-win” for all stakeholders.
"The Board of Education values the highly talented and dedicated teaching staff of District 181," says Board of Education Member and Negotiations team member Jill Vorobiev. "We want to ensure the contract reflects our respect for their professionalism while being responsible to the community."
The current teacher's contract is effective through June 30, 2016. Once the current contract expires, the contract parameters remain in effect until a new contract is reached.
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Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources John Munch notes that since the fall of 2015, teachers and District representatives have been meeting as a Compensation Review Committee to review the teachers’ salary schedule, continuing education, health insurance, professional development, retirement, and other forms of compensation. “We have been considering how these contract features should be designed in a 21st century education system.”
HCHTA Negotiations Chair and Clarendon Hills Middle School teacher Mario Castillo says that the interest-based negotiations process being used has helped to facilitate an open and productive dialogue. “In this format, both teams must listen to each other for understanding, and the by-products are solutions and progress. We hope to keep this process moving forward so we can settle the new contract this summer.”
Find out what's happening in Hinsdale-Clarendon Hillsfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Superintendent Dr. Don White commends all parties for their efforts thus far. “The team is committed to students first, and is demonstrating how we can use stories and respectful conversation to drive positive change. Everyone is giving a great deal of time to this work and based on our progress to this point, I anticipate we will be finished before the start of the 2016-17 school year."
