Geneva school district, teachers reach tentative deal on new contract
The teachers union in Geneva Unit School District 304 could ratify a new three-year contract this week, allowing the district's board of education to approve the deal at its April 10 meeting, board President Michael McCormick said.
A tentative new agreement between the district and the Geneva Education Association already is in place, McCormick said. The current contract expires Aug. 14.
"We started talking since before the holidays and we had this long six-hour session and the federal mediator sat with us," McCormick said. "It was a good opportunity. There were no caucuses. People got to vent about being angry. It was good for me to hear the teachers' positions. ... I think they understood the economic situation and without going to corners like we did before. We had to stay in the room together."
Geneva Education Association President Jordan Zimberoff confirmed in an email that the two sides have a tentative deal.
"The GEA is planning to vote on the contract this coming week, and if approved by membership, send it to the board for their April 10th meeting," he wrote. "GEA leadership thanks everyone involved in these negotiations for the amicable, positive, and productive process that produced this (agreement)."
A new labor pact would mark a stark difference from five years ago, when Geneva teachers went on strike.
McCormick said negotiators relied on a platform called interest-based bargaining through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an independent agency that assists in labor-management talks.
Early contract talks were about noneconomic topics, such as class size, he said.
By the time they got to the end of the sixth hour on Feb. 28, both sides had developed relationships with each other without each side digging in, and settled the economic portion of the contract, McCormick said.
"We needed a sustainable contract that the community could afford that was fair compensation," he added. "In the process the 'we' and 'them' blurred away. It was a good experience. I came away with a whole new understanding of union members and I think we came away as friends with thumbs-up and everybody hugging."
In 2018, teachers picketed before contract talk sessions, and struck for five days - the first strike in the district's history - before finally securing a five-year contract.
"They felt disrespected in the last negotiations and I truly did not understand the animosity until I heard it in this session," McCormick said.
School board members did not fare well during that time either, he said.
"Somebody keyed my car and put dog poop on my door step. I'm not saying they did, but somebody did," McCormick said. "And walking through those crowds to negotiate - it didn't make us feel really good about a compromise with people yelling names at us."