U-46 contract vote a message

Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers Monday rejected a contract proposal reached after nearly a year of negotiations between the district and the state's second-largest teachers union.

With 91 percent of teachers weighing in by secret ballot, 1,183, or 51.3 percent, voted against the three-year deal, and 1,125, or 48.7 percent, voted for the pact.

A majority at each grade level -- 52 percent of elementary teachers, 51 percent of middle school teachers and 57 percent of high school teachers -- voted against the proposal, which school board members already had tentatively approved.

Negotiations will resume once union leaders survey members to determine the root of their dissatisfaction, Elgin Teacher Association President Tim Davis said Tuesday.

"We're going to aggressively continue to work toward an agreement," Davis said.

District officials said they would wait for union leaders to weigh in before proceeding further.

"We're disappointed in the vote, obviously," said U-46 attorney Patrick Broncato, who negotiated on behalf of the district.

The contract called for average raises of 6.1 percent this year and annual raises from 4.4 percent to 5.7 percent -- determined by the rate of inflation -- in the second and third years of the contract.

It also called for a new teacher evaluation system, as well as aides at high schools and middle schools to help address large class sizes.

But the details of the contract may have been eclipsed by a desire to send a message to school board members and administrators.

"I would say there's a level of frustration," school board member Amy Kerber said. "And there's a message of frustration in the outcome of the vote."

Davis agreed faculty members used the vote as an opportunity to make a statement.

Davis cited the example of one teacher who said she would vote to approve the contract today -- since her Monday "no" vote was really a vote against the state of the district, not the contract.

"Membership has spoken loudly, resolutely," Davis said.

Pay not main issue

Bargaining team members agreed teachers were speaking loudly and resolutely -- and again, not necessarily about the contract.

"People are going to think it's about pay, and honestly, that's not it," said Elgin High School environmental science teacher Deb Perryman, who helped create the new evaluation tool that was part of the contract.

"It's the working conditions," Perryman said. "Everyone is just so tired, so over-burdened and so stressed out."

Several teachers went to the school board during the past year warning that staff members had reached a breaking point.

They complained of large class sizes in some schools, a barrage of new initiatives foisted on all teachers, a tendency for administration to exclude teachers from the decision-making process and a constant pressure to improve test scores.

"They were upset because they don't feel valued and trusted," Davis said.

School board President Ken Kaczynski, however, said Tuesday he did not want to speculate on what the teachers' concerns were.

"Other than what's been presented at the board meetings, we really haven't heard a lot from individual teachers," Kaczynski said. "At least I haven't personally."

Much of the pressure teachers say they feel comes from the district's push to increase test scores, a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The federal accountability measure imposes sanctions on schools whose students fail to meet state requirements on standardized tests.

"I think there's just a general malaise and frustration, and No Child Left Behind has a lot to do with it," Elgin High School civics teacher Leigh Bailey said. "There's a lot of frustration that we have to jump through all these hoops."

The Neale factor

Teachers also agreed the controversial $60,000 raise and bonus school board members gave Superintendent Connie Neale in January loomed over the negotiations.

At the time, teachers expressed outrage about the details of Neale's contract and generous benefit package, and indicated they would expect a similarly generous contract.

Dissatisfaction peaked again when Neale went on indefinite medical leave just over three weeks ago.

"Obviously, I think that the Connie factor is playing in people's minds, even though we've done our best to distance this process from that," said Hans Stiehl, a teacher at Central School and a member of the bargaining team.

The school board's refusal to listen to the concerns of teachers, community members and one of its own members -- who resigned in protest over the January additions to Neale's contract -- made union members very distrustful, Stiehl said.

"My personal feeling is we have some issues with people on the board," Stiehl said.

The bad blood reached such a level that some teachers were wary of agreeing to anything the administration and school board were willing to support, Perryman said.

"No question, there's a lot of distrust," Perryman said.