Students are set to return to school Thursday
NAPERVILLE — The Naperville Unit Education Association (NUEA) membership voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike. The vote gives the bargaining team the authority to declare a strike, however, there are no plans to go on strike at this time.
“Listen, no one wants to go on strike. In fact, it’s the last thing we want to do. We’d much rather be in our classrooms with our students than out on the picket line. But we’re also willing to do whatever is necessary to make sure our students have the best education possible,” NUEA President Ross Berkley said. “If we do go on strike, we also want to reassure parents and our community that we will give plenty of notice before, so
arrangements for childcare can be made.”
Naperville Community Unit School District 203 Board of Education (BOE) and NUEA have been bargaining since February. NUEA’s current contract expired on June 30, which means there is no contract in place for the start of the school year. Students return to school on Aug. 14.
In July, NUEA initiated the public posting process with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB), which is the first step toward a possible strike.
“We know the district can afford to meet our requests. We would never do anything that would hurt the financial health of the district because ultimately that would hurt our students and our educators. When the district has been in a difficult financial position, we have not taken raises, but we are on solid financial footing now,” Berkley said.
NUEA represents more than 1500 teachers and licensed staff serving the nearly 16,000 students who attend school in District 203.
At issue are:
• Drastic changes to the structure of the students’ school days: The changes to the school day being proposed by the district could move some school day start and end times, causing major shifts in the timing of after school activities and in some cases leave less learning time for students throughout the school day.
• Salary: District 203 is falling behind in offering competitive salary packages. Teacher workload has significantly increased with the expectation of differentiated learning combined with increased student academic, behavior and social-emotional needs. Surrounding school districts have a higher base salary. These districts include Indian Prairie School District 204, Elmhurst 204, Barrington 202, St. Charles 303, Wheaton 200 and Plainfield 202 among others.
NUEA has done extensive research to support its proposals, including a cost analysis that shows the district has more than 300 days of cash on hand, which is nearly twice the amount recommended by the Illinois State Board of Education.
“This is about our students. It’s always about our students. We are only asking for the board to make our salaries competitive with our surrounding districts, so we can continue to attract and retain the best staff for our students. Without good teachers, their education will suffer,” Berkley said.
NUEA will bargain with the BOE on Tues., Aug. 19.
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The 135,000 member Illinois Education Association (IEA-NEA) is the state’s largest union. IEA represents Pre K-12 teachers outside the city of Chicago and education support staff, higher education faculty and staff, retired education employees and students preparing to become teachers, statewide.