Another day of Prospect Heights teacher strike
Prospect Heights teachers will be on strike for a fifth day Tuesday, but officials continued to negotiate overnight in hopes of reaching a deal soon.
Students have not been in class since Sept. 15, and the earliest they could return to the classroom would be Thursday. Wednesday is a scheduled nonattendance day and the Yom Kippur holiday.
The Prospect Heights Education Association and District 23 school board have been in and out of negotiations for nearly a week while more than 1,500 students have been out of school.
Major sticking points between the two sides have included raises for the 150 teachers and educational support personnel in the union and the idea of a salary schedule that dictates additional bonuses for years of service or educational levels.
A note on the district website said “both PHEA and the board of education are continuing to negotiate throughout the evening.”
The strike started last Wednesday after contract talks broke down in the early hours of the morning. Matters grew increasingly tense throughout the week as teachers picketed and the two sides could not even agree on when to meet.
On Sunday the school board called for a “cooling-off” period of two weeks in hopes of getting teachers back in the classroom while negotiations continued, but the union rejected that idea.
“A cooling-off period is not a solution to the problem. It is delaying coming to a resolution,” read a note posted to the union's website after Sunday's negotiations. Union officials added that they felt some progress was made that night and were going into Monday's meeting hopeful.
Negotiations started at 6 p.m., but four hours later no deal had been reached so a call went out to parents to let them know that the strike would continue another day.
Programs continue to be offered through the Arlington Heights, Prospect Heights and Wheeling park districts as alternatives for parents during the strike.