U-46 union finds out why deal was rejected

More than 80 percent of Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers weighed in on the survey that will guide a second round of contract negotiations, Elgin Teachers Association President Tim Davis said Thursday.

Teachers last month narrowly rejected a tentative deal between the union and the school board.

The survey was designed to pinpoint the reasons the district's 2,400 teachers voted against -- or for -- the three-year pact.

Of the 1,969 teachers who responded, 935 also filled out the extended answer portion of the survey, which allowed teachers to share additional comments.

Union leaders continue to analyze the responses and plan to share the results of the survey with members next week, Davis said.

"There won't be any surprises about what the main concerns are," Davis said.

Since rejecting the contract, teachers have criticized the proposal for not doing enough to reduce class sizes.

They also have complained about sliding raises, tied to the rate of inflation, in the second and third years of the contract. The deal calls for average raises of 6.1 percent in the first year of the contract and between 4.4 percent and 5.7 percent -- determined by the rate of inflation -- in the second and third years of the contract.

At a school board meeting last month, teachers lined up to tell school board members they felt overstressed and underappreciated. Some said the vote against the contract was designed to send a message to the school board.

The six-page survey asked teachers whether they voted for or against the deal and asked them to list the top three factors influencing their vote.

Choices included class size and case load, the new proposed evaluation plan, the new retirement incentive plan, salary increases or the sick day increase.

The survey also asked teachers to rank, on a scale from one to five, their level of satisfaction with working in the district.