Plainfield Teachers Sound Off on Workload, Compensation

APT President Dawn Bullock speaks during Monday night’s District 202 Board of Education meeting. Credit: Shannon Antinori.

Nearly a week after Association of Plainfield Teachers (APT) members rejected a tentative three-year contract by a vote of 965 to 737, teachers spoke out to say why they voted against the pact.

“We can’t give any more,” teacher Pam Jennings told the District 202 Board of Education during the public comment period at Monday night’s meeting. “We need the time to do our job and we don’t have it.”

Several teachers spoke out, citing issues including workload and compensation, saying administering common assessments and entering data is taking too much time away from teaching and planning.

Although representatives for District 202 and APT met on Oct. 8, mutually agreeing on a three-year deal, teachers weren’t happy with the proposal. Their Oct. 22 vote against the pact sent negotiations — which started last November — back to the drawing board.

APT President Dawn Bullock last week said workload, uneven student distribution among classes and compensation were among key issues behind teachers’ decision to reject the contract.

• Plainfield Teachers Reject Proposed Contract

On Monday, Bullock said Plainfield School District is becoming a training ground for quality teachers, who are then lured away by higher-paying jobs in other districts.

“Every year, we are training new teachers and losing our experienced staff,” Bullock said. “As teachers we are preparing students for the future, but as a district, you are preparing teachers for other districts.” She said over the last seven years, District 202 has lost 100 to 150 teachers per year to other districts.

She asked the board what the district is doing to help the Village of Plainfield bring more businesses to town to help offset residents’ property tax burden.

“It is not our intention to ask [residents] to pay more,” Bullock said.

With state funding falling far short of the district’s needs, board member Rod Westfall said the district has encouraged the Village of Plainfield — and the other municipalities that feed into the district — to work to attract businesses to increase tax revenue.

“We do value our teachers,” Westfall said, noting that since he joined the board, the starting salary for a first-year teacher has nearly doubled from its 2001 level of around $21,000.

“We realize we need more revenue in this district,” he said, adding that board members have made the trip to Springfield to urge legislators to push for school funding reform.

Teacher Jamie Glass said as time has passed, more assessments have been added, meaning more time being spent testing and entering data and less time for teachers to plan, adding that rather than preparing learners for the future, “I think we’re preparing them for testing.”

Faculty member Mary Jones said compensation has not kept up with the added workload, saying pay has increased 3 percent over the past four years, but estimating that her workload has increased by 20 percent.

“The workload and compensation are not equitable,” Jones said. “There are not enough hours in one day to complete my workload, so it comes home with me every night and every weekend ... I understand a limited budget, but teachers need to be a priority.”

Other teachers noted that increased work from district initiatives and the implementation of things like Common Core standards and a new English/language arts curriculum, not to mention the paperwork that comes with assessments, are taking teachers away from their role.

“My love is teaching,” Lynn Smith said. “What’s missing is the teaching.”

Smith added, “There’s a lot being put on our plates. The workload is too much to have such little compensation.”

Superintendent Lane Abrell said district administrators are working on “parallel topics” to study and possibly address teachers’ concerns regarding workload.

“We are cognizant, I am cognizant of the workload,” Abrell said.

“It’s really up to APT now,” Board of Education President Roger Bonuchi said of what’s next as far as continued negotiations with the union. After APT reps gather feedback from members, “We’ll go back to the table,” Bonuchi said.

Bullock last week said the teachers’ team is scheduled to meet and discuss their next steps.

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