18
As
WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya
reports, contract talks lasted until 11 p.m. Monday, and are supposed to resume
in the mid-afternoon.
Teachers
are in the fifth day of their strike, while students are in the second day of
being in school during their strike.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/09/18/students-in-class-but-lake-forest-teachers-strike-continues/
The
Lake Forest High School Board of Education and Union leaders met for 14 hours
today, Monday, September 17.
The
Board reaffirmed that it had taken the two-tiered salary schedule off the
table, and expected substantive movement from the Union on their salary proposal.
The parties were unable to come to agreement on salary.
The
Union’ continues to claim that the district’s fund balance will grow by $20
million over the next 3 years. To clarify, the Board agreed to bring in a
neutral third party, this person served on both parties’ bargaining teams in
the past, and was asked to review the financials and confirm their accuracy.
The District’s numbers were analyzed, but the Union declined to meet with the
independent reviewer.
http://gazebonews.com/2012/09/18/no-progress-on-lake-forest-high-school-teacher-negotiations/
One
statement in today's update teacher strike article by Paula Skaggs informed
readers that "the Board agreed to bring in a neutral third party to review
and verify the claim by the LFEA that the district's fund balance will grow by
over $20 million over the next three years."
Why
is the District 115 Board giving so much credence to the red herring argument
raised by the union that because there might be more money in the till to grab,
the Board ought to give it to the teachers?
Salient
points, and ones that have been repeatedly emphasized by the taxpayers in the
wake of the strike, are: 1) that LFHS
teachers are already overly compensated, particularly given that so many highly
paid teachers are either performing relatively low-skilled work (drivers' ed) or performing higher level work but doing a marginal or
poor job; and 2) that the taxpayers are in desperate need for substantial tax
relief -- something that might be possible if the Board holds firm on its
current wage increase offer.
http://lakeforest.going.com/blog_posts/good-will-by-board-should-soften-hard-union-stance
Nearly
30 Lake Forest High School students attended a candlelight vigil Tuesday night
on the spot where their teachers have picketed since Wednesday. They reminisced
about their favorites, shared laughs and even broke out in song
In
the first-ever teachers’ strike at Lake Forest High School — where the
administrators and community have joined forces to get students back in class
despite the teachers picketing out front — the strain is mounting.
Ashley
Armstrong and Marissa Saffrin, juniors at LFHS, met
at a coffee shop off Market Square Monday night to study Advanced Placement
Biology.
“We
don’t exactly understand what’s going on,” Armstrong said. “We don’t know what
to believe.”
“I
want to get back to normal,” Saffrin said. “We’re
getting behind. Missing school is pretty devastating for an AP course.”
Members
of the Lake Forest City Council voiced their concerns about the teachers’
strike during the regular city council meeting Monday night.
Besieged by community members
who have sought them out to share their views, aldermen from each of the four
wards asked questions of School Board President Sharon Golan, Vice President
Jim Carey and Superintendent Michael Simeck during a
negotiations update Monday night.
The school board and city council are separate governmental bodies.
“Almost
everybody sitting on this city council has probably taken a salary reduction
over the last four or five years,” Fourth Ward Alderman Michael Adelman said.
“That’s the reality.”
Adelman,
who said several times he was speaking personally and not as a member of the
city council, termed the teachers’ salary demands “unrealistic.”
Armstrong
and Saffrin both attended school on Monday, the first
day back since the teachers began picketing last week, and both said they will
keep going through the strike as long as programming is offered.
But
neither could say which side they supported.
“I’m
indifferent,” said Armstrong. “As students, we’re stuck in the middle.” The
strike, she said, “probably affects us the most.”
Armstrong
and Saffrin were among about 1,400 students who
attended school Monday and Tuesday, of 1,718 who are enrolled.
Whether
the days will be counted as official school days is to be determined by State
Superintendent of Schools Chris Koch.
Simeck said the administrators had
programming set up through the end of this week and possibly into the beginning
of next, but said it would be “extraordinarily difficult” to bring in 150
substitute teachers to resume regular classes.
“We
have had a significant number of questions on AP courses and we need to have
more emphasis on the math, science, English and social studies core,” he said.
“We’re working to that end right now.”
Second
Ward Alderman George Pandaleon said residents who
approached him with comments on the strike were backing the school board to
rein in salary increases.
“Speaking
personally, this pattern of public employee unions holding governments and
communities hostage for unrealistic pay that is completely inconsistent with
what’s happening in any other part of the economy has to stop,” Pandaleon said.
http://lakeforest.suntimes.com/15204153-781/negotiations-ongoing-in-lake-forest.html?print=true
If
the teachers are on strike with no contract, fire them all and hire new
teachers. I’ll bet there are a lot of them out there who would be happy to have
a job. Then the strikers could march at the unemployment office and ask for
their unemployment benefits to include a 5 to 6.5 percent increase. These
people need a reality check. It’s “for the kids” my foot.
http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/15201677-418/talk-of-the-county.html?print=true
However,
unlike Chicago, Lake Forest High School administrators are placing their kids’
education above the politics of the teachers union by doing the
unthinkable–using replacement teachers.
While
teachers remained on strike, the school reopened Monday, apparently with enough
students and certified teachers on hand to meet state criteria.
…
more municipalities who find their kids’ education
being held hostage to radical teachers’ union bosses should take note of Lake
Forest’s example.
It’s
a lesson that won’t be taught in the classroom anytime soon.
Lake
Forest High School athletics are back — for one night, at least.
Despite
the continuing teachers’ strike, more than 50 percent of the student body
attended school Tuesday and received at least five hours of instruction in core
subject areas. That allowed the school to meet the state standards for a legal
school day, freeing up the athletic teams to compete again.
A
statement posted to the Lake Forest High School website Tuesday included a
schedule for girls and boys cross country races and matches in girls field
hockey, girls tennis and boys golf. Practices were scheduled for football, boys soccer, poms, cheerleading,
girls volleyball and girls swimming.
The
statement included a sentence stipulating that the schedule was “pending the
final approval of the Illinois High School Association.”
Miller’s
team is scheduled to play Stevenson on Wednesday and Warren on Friday. She
won’t be sure about those matches until the school meets the state’s requirements
again and gets approval from the IHSA.
http://lincolnwood.suntimes.com/sports/15235727-419/lake-forest-teams-return-to-competition.html
In
another Patch article, chief union negotiator and Lake Forest High School
teacher Charles Gress was quoted as saying that the
union’s demands must be met to insure quality teachers for LFHS.
That
contention is outrageous given that the current tenure and seniority-based
union contract has the inevitable result of fostering mediocrity despite our paying top
dollar.
State
education officials said late Tuesday that the two days of classes held at Lake
Forest High School while teachers have been strike should not count as legal
attendance days.
“At
this point, we do not believe that the Lake Forest program meets the criteria
for a legal school day,” said Mary Fergus, spokeswoman for the Illinois State
Board of Education.
State
education officials did not specify why they didn’t think Lake Forest met the
criteria for having Monday and Tuesday count as legal attendance day.
Those
criteria include having at least 50 percent student attendance – a mark that
was easily met both days, according to school officials. The school must also
have a specific number of certified teachers on hand. Another factor is the
quality of the educational programming.
It
is unclear whether students can participate in sports contests while teachers
are on strike. School administrators have said the games can go on, but state
and county education officials have said the strike must end first.
Whenever
a resolution comes, school board President Sharon Golan said the district and
its teachers will "pull back together" when the strike is over.
"This
is about the process. It's not about the people, the personalities, at
all," Golan said. The strike, she said, "is just a little
glitch."
While
most eyes are on the Chicago Teachers Union strike affecting inner-city
schools, another teachers strike was in its fifth day Tuesday in the wealthy
north suburb of Lake Forest, where student-to-teacher ratios are low and
salaries high compared to Chicago.
The most glaring difference
between the strikes?
Lake Forest students were in their classrooms, and instruction was taking place
Monday and Tuesday. Chicago students were anywhere but their classrooms.
The
quality of the substitute instruction in Lake Forest is up for debate among
local and state education officials, but the school district said about 70 of
the temporary teachers were certified educators.
Unlike
the Chicago strike, which left thousands of inner-city families in a lurch,
Lake Forest school officials brought in dozens of certified teachers,
volunteers and non-certified teaching assistants to staff the school. They
called students back to their classrooms on Monday, even though the strike was
ongoing.
That’s
strike-breaking, plain and simple, said Charlie McBarron,
spokesman for the Illinois Education Association, of which the Lake Forest teachers
union is an affiliate. The school board’s claims that education is taking place
during the strike there are false, he said.
“Lake
Forest High is a top-quality school because of its teachers. The board should
stop pretending to educate students and, instead, offer teachers a fair
contract,” he said. “The teachers want to be with the students. The board can
make that happen. They should stop pretending and start negotiating.”
According
to an analysis of the Lake Forest contract by the Illinois Policy Institute,
the teachers there currently pay nothing for HMO health insurance. The school
board is asking them to pay 10 percent of their premiums.
In
addition, per-pupil spending there is about $36,000 per student, the
student-to-teacher ratio is about 14 to 1, and only 4 percent of Lake Forest
students are considered low income.
http://watchdog.org/56698/il-lake-forest-brings-in-subs-volunteers-to-man-classrooms-during-strike/
Discussions
resume Tuesday at 3pm.
Even
with the strike going, Lake Forest High School was open Monday.
Students
were greeted by teacher assistants, office employees, and volunteers.
The
Lake Forest teachers union wants a 5.6 percent salary increase in the first
year, 6.5 percent in the second year and 5.6 percent in the third year of a new
contract.
The
school board is offering about half that.