It's officially over: Dist. 158 OKs contract

The Huntley Unit District 158 school board approved a new three-year contract with the district's teachers Monday night.

The 6-0 vote was the final step in a process that took seven months, resulted in a two-day teacher strike and led the district to cancel school for three days.

Board member Mike Skala abstained from voting on the contract because his wife teaches in the district. Skala was not involved in contract negotiations.

About 87 percent of the teachers who were present at last week's ratification meetings voted in favor of the contract, according to the union.

The contract, backdated to July 1 and expiring June 30, 2011, increases teacher compensation by more than 5.25 percent this year, next year and the year after that.

While praising the work that went into the contract, board members said there was no reason for teachers to go on strike last week.

"It was completely unnecessary," board President Shawn Green said. "The board would have been more than willing to come to this exact agreement a week or two ago."

Because of knee surgery and a new work schedule, Green missed many, if not most, of the negotiation sessions after mid-April.

Board Vice President Tony Quagliano said the board deserved some of the blame for the strike and apologized to the district's residents.

"We did fail you, and I feel directly responsible for that happening - but we were only part of the equation," Quagliano said.

A union spokeswoman said the Huntley Education Association had no choice but to call a strike.

"The decision to strike was really out of our hands, something we were forced into," said Britt Crowe.

While board member Aileen Seedorf voted for the contract, she said the raises were too generous and called increases to teachers' pensions "an insult to the taxpayers."

But Crowe said the increased pension contributions were simply a step toward making District 158's teacher compensation comparable to surrounding school districts'.

Board members Monday pushed for negotiations open to the public or at least the union membership - ideas that were shot down by the union during negotiations.

"A lot of the heartache could have been taken away if it had been more open," board Secretary Kim Skaja said.

Crowe said while open negotiations would be an unprecedented step in Illinois, the union was willing to revisit the issue in three years.

The board president said the district's salary schedule needs to be revisited.

"There's no doubt that certain parts of our salary (schedule) should be higher, and that's at the low end," Green said.

Crowe said the union was looking forward to working with the board on revising the district's salary schedule.

"The HEA is interested in a salary schedule that attracts quality teachers - but also that retains quality teachers and rewards quality teachers," Crowe said.

Board members, who met for nearly 60 hours during the last 10 days leading up to the Sept. 17 agreement, expressed relief negotiations were over.

"Wars have been fought in less time than it took to create this contract," Seedorf said.

You can view the contract on the district's Web site, d158.k12.il.us.