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Talks are expected to resume Saturday between negotiators for striking Lake Forest High School teachers and the school board — but strike or no strike, classes are resuming on Monday.

 

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/09/15/strike-notwithstanding-school-to-open-in-lake-forest-monday/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As pointed out by Steve Sadin in this morning’s PATCH article, the most recent data issued by the Illinois State Board of Education website (ISBE) indicates that Lake Forest High School teachers are already the highest paid on the North Shore, edging out Deerfield and Highland Park High Schools by $421 a year. The average annual teacher salary at LFHS is $106,457. Educators at Deerfield and Highland Park High Schools earn an average of $106.036 per year.  New Trier Township High Schools comes in at $103,670; Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South High Schools at $100,401; and Stevenson High School at $97,531.

 

An impasse has been reached because District 115 Board wisely refused to meet the demands of a proposal presented by the Lake Forest Education Association on July 19, which calls for a three-year contract with an average annual increase in compensation (salary and benefits) of 6.7 percent.  The board offered a compensation package of 3.6 percent, which is very generous particularly given the not-so-stellar economy.  And it was not unreasonable of the board to further request that teachers pay some of their family health care premiums.

 

In a published LF Patch article on Friday, August 11, “LFHS Teachers Declare Impasse, Strike Possible,” Richard Moore, Lake Forest Education Association teachers’ union President, had this to say:  “I’m teacher.  I just want to teach.  I left the business world because I want to help raise the next generation.”

 

Moore also insisted that the contract must be  fair and equitable.”

 

Perhaps Richard Moore should have stayed in the business world?   He did make a respectable base salary of $105.344 during the 2011-2012 school year.  This doesn’t include all the other perks Richard might have received, including healthcare, which his base salary does not reflect.

 

Not bad considering all the days off throughout the school year, including winter and spring breaks, a Christmas break, and at least eight weeks of vacation time during the summer!   Such time off is not available in the business world!

 

For many local residents teacher salaries have gotten to be over generous at LFHS, with pensions now reaching the level of what teachers earn in their final year of teaching within ten years after they retire.

 

Competition now seems to rule in salary negotiations.   Just as schools compete with one another to have winning sports teams, schools are now competing to offer the highest salaries through teacher union negotiations.  Teacher unions will strongly suggest that teachers will go elsewhere if their pay is not equal or better than those offered in a neighboring school district.

 

http://www.familytaxpayers.org/2012/08/15/are-lfhs-teachers-greedy-or-do-they-just-have-a-tin-ear/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before negotiations were ended by the district yesterday afternoon, the Lake Forest Education Association (LFEA) asked the mediator to inform the District 115 Board of Education (BOE) that we would be ready to continue negotiations at 10 AM on Saturday. At 10 AM this morning, the LFEA negotiating team entered district headquarters hoping to find the BOE negotiating team. Instead, the BOE left a note on the table for the LFEA team to read. Their note declared that yesterday’s “…last, best offer” was their final offer and demanded a last, best offer from us.

 

According to Tom Gigiano, the lead negotiator for the LFEA, “This is not the collective bargaining process and does not lead to productive compromise. The LFEA’s last, best offer is for us to be at the negotiating table together to find common ground, complete this process, and get our teachers and kids back where they belong, in the classroom together.”

 

The entire text of the BOE’s message is as follows:

 

LFEA Team:

 

The doors have been left open at the front. If you have a last, best for the board, please contact Mike Hernandez (D-115 attorney). The board team is prepared to meet at any time and respond to your last, best offer.

 

http://gazebonews.com/2012/09/15/lake-forest-teachers-union-where-is-the-board-of-ed/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These oppressed members of the proletariat average $106,500 a year in salary for their 9 month gigs and that compares pretty well with the already very generous Illinois average teacher salary of  $65,000.

 

But these oppressed members of the exploited working class - in what  is perhaps the most posh educational setting in Illinois still aren't satisfied.

 

Despite the continued national and statewide economic malaise (believe it or not there have been foreclosures even in Lake Forest) these piggies are still holding out for raises of 5 to 6.5 percent per year.

 

http://chicagolampoon.blogspot.com/2012/09/oppressed-proletariat-of-lake-forest.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The School Board and the LFEA met for nearly 7 and a half hours on Thursday night, but they failed to come to a conclusive agreement.

 

http://lakeforest.patch.com/articles/the-lfhs-teacher-s-strike-the-story-so-far

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Forest High School administrators have devised an unusual plan for dealing with a walkout by their teachers: reopen school without them.

 

Three days into a teachers strike, the district announced Friday that students will be expected to show up Monday for an "all-day educational program" that will be provided by administrators, with the help of a group of hastily recruited and background-checked community volunteers.

 

Such moves are not unheard of in the private sector, where employers might hire replacement workers or rely on managers to keep operations humming during labor strikes. But Lake Forest's plan is uncommon for a public school district, for reasons that range from educational to practical to political, observers say.

 

While the local teachers union would not comment on the district's plan, an Illinois Education Association spokesman was dubious.

 

"The reason it never happens is that it's a sham to suggest that education is taking place under these circumstances," spokesman Charles McBarron said. "Most districts aren't willing to engage in that."

 

McBarron said he's never heard of a district trying to open schools during a strike using volunteers and administrators.

 

Administrators in the suburban Round Lake school district hired substitutes to get schools open six weeks into an eight-week teachers strike in 1994 (some teachers also crossed the picket line). In the mid-1980s, the tiny district in downstate Homer, near Champaign, brought in subs 11 days into a strike that ground on for eight months.

 

Roycealee Wood, superintendent of the Lake County Regional Office of Education, said she would be at the school Monday to judge whether the day's education is up to snuff. Lake Forest must offer five hours of instruction in the core subjects of English, science, math and social studies, and at least half of its students must be in attendance, she said.

 

"We have to make sure all those teachers are certified, not volunteers, if they want to count it as a day," Wood said. "They have to give me a list of all these people so we can check our records."

 

As for Lake Forest's murky plan for Monday, attorney James Bartley, a school law specialist with the Chicago firm of Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, said a district might try to claim it offered a legal school day even if most classrooms were staffed by volunteers.

 

State regulations say people without teaching certificates can't perform tasks requiring "instructional judgment." But if an administrator with a certificate were to oversee a class — similar to a teacher bringing in a guest lecturer — a district could assert it was operating within the law, Bartley said.

 

Lake Forest's teachers walkout prompted the cancellation of Friday night's football game against Lake Zurich High School. Matt Troha of the Illinois High School Association said the school won't be allowed into any other competitions as long as the strike persists.

 

That annoyed six Lake Forest football players who launched a satiric "strike against the strike" Friday, showing up near the teachers' picket line with signs bearing slogans such as, "I have a sign."

 

The players said they didn't know what they'd be doing in the classroom when school reopens Monday, but they weren't expecting anything rigorous.

 

It could be a different story on the picket line. Asked what the striking teachers would do when the doors open, union spokesman Chuck Gress said: "The atmosphere on Monday is going to take a different tone."

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lake-forest-strike-school-open-20120915,0,1298122,full.story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Union spokesman Chuck Gress criticized the board's tactics, calling them inconsistent with the collective bargaining process.

 

“We are negotiating with ourselves, in a sense," he said. “Our last best offer is for them to return to the bargaining table and finish contract negotiations so that we teachers can get back to what we do best and that is the teaching of our students.”

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-lake-forest-teachers-talks-remain-stalled-20120915,0,98401.story