District 203 continuing push to bring workers back to Central
Naperville Unit District 203 officials will continue their push this week to convince striking workers to resume construction at Naperville Central High School.
The district's facilities committee will meet early Tuesday morning to get an update on the status of the project and talk about its options.
Work on the $87.7 million renovation came to a halt Thursday after the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150 and Laborers' District Council of Chicago and Vicinity went on strike.
The unions are at odds with the Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association and Excavators Inc.
District 203 is petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to file an unfair labor practice complaint because nonstriking union members also have stopped working.
Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said that based on the response he receives from the labor board, the district may ask the courts for a temporary restraining order to force nonstriking workers to resume construction.
District 203 has sent a letter to the striking unions offering to retroactively pay workers who return to the job site based on what settlement they ultimately reach with the contractors' group.
Mitrovich did not receive a response over the holiday weekend. The district office was closed Monday but he said he had been checking e-mails from home.
"The sides that really have something to say about this are being very, very quiet and not a whole lot is getting done," he said.
Ed Maher, communications director for the operating engineers, declined to comment on the district's offer, saying he had not yet seen the letter.
Maher has been hearing from Central parents concerned about the strike affecting students and said he understands their frustrations, but the union also has to protect its members. He said the union is eager to resume negotiations.
School is scheduled to begin Aug. 25 for Central's 3,000 students. However, they will not be able to use the building at 440 W. Aurora Ave. until all of the scheduled summer work is complete.
The district already was pressed for time before the strike and had workers on site six days a week tearing up roughly 165,000 square feet of the building.
This week's to-do list includes identifying alternatives sites at which to hold classes in the event the building is not ready in time.
"Unless something dramatic happens this week we're going to be hard-pressed to open school on the 25th," Mitrovich said.
Work at Central began in May 2009. The overall project will affect roughly 75 percent of the building and includes a three-story addition that will house all major subject areas.
It also calls for infrastructure upgrades, a near learning resource center, new athletic and music spaces, improved traffic flow inside and out and synthetic turf on the football field. The project is scheduled to wrap up in December 2011.