District 113 Teacher Backlash Follows Proposed Working Condition, Schedule Changes

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Dozens of local teachers addressed a special meeting of the Township District 113 High School board Tuesday to discuss proposed changes to working conditions and school schedules at Deerfield and Highland Park high schools.

In over two and a half hours of public comments, District 113 educators repeatedly chastised administrators and board members for the handling of the proposals, which included mandatory morning office hours for full-time certified staff. Teachers also criticized the way the changes were communicated — an email on the eve of the final day of school.

The sometimes emotional remarks followed discussion among board members, during which Superintendent Bruce Law was directed to "recalibrate" the process of drawing up changes to student schedules and the faculty handbook.

Law and some board members pointed out that the teachers' representatives had declined to negotiate over the proposal when it was first floated in January. But staff who spoke at the meeting said renegotiating working conditions should take place in the final year of a collective bargaining agreement.

Law said it would be impossible for the district to achieve its goals if so many people remain so upset.

"It seems like we're having a moment in the U.S. right now, as I think about this. You know, if you don't feel like something, you don't like the outcome, it just seems like there's the option of just going on the attack," Law said.

"If you don't like the outcome of an election, go on the attack. If you don't like what a school board is doing when it comes to coping with the pandemic, requiring masks, go on attack. You don't like a book in the library," he continued . "It seems as though we don't take this position of, 'We have a disagreement with someone, we should sit down and try to sort through these disagreements and these issues.' That doesn't seem as much anymore the way, although you can imagine a situation where that would be the case. And here we are."

Board member Rick Heineman said the District 113 Educational Association, or DEA, the collective bargaining unit representing the high school's licensed educational staff, has had a copy of the administration's proposal for nearly five months. Unlike nearly every other public high school district in the state, teachers in the district are not unionized.

"We've repeatedly, repeatedly, asked for input and discussion, and those requests have been rejected," Heineman said. "So I agree that we should be recalibrate, but I would sincerely hope that we could get the DEA, or whatever group is representing our employees, to engage with us to have a discussion on this topic."

After delivering prepared remarks containing the refrain, "There is a breakdown of accountability and 113 is not doing what is best for its students," board member Dan Struck said the district needs to negotiate a structure where there are consequences if faculty members fail to meet expectations.

"For the vast majority, it's irrelevant. But there are issues in the district where children aren't being served and there is a breakdown of accountability," Struck said. "We need to do a better job of addressing those, and that can only be done through discussions and through finding a mutual understanding about what the expectations are."

DHS teacher and current DEA President Marty Esgar said it was no coincidence that administrators sprung the proposed working condition changes just before the end of the school year.

"And you know what? It now makes sense when I read this, that it's the same thing you wanted to do in January. We told you repeatedly, we're not doing this, and you're going to send it out anyway?" Esgar said. "It says in there that we have a 'high level overview.' We hear that a lot. We see that a lot. And do you know what 'high level overview' really means? It means we don't have the important details figured out, but we'll create chaos anyway. We'll throw it out there, and then we'll see, or whatever. Give me a break."

Related: New Schedule Could Weaken HPHS Fine Arts Program, District Warned

As for changes to the class schedule for the coming year, board members Anne Neumann and Jaime Barrazza, who together comprise a board committee tasked with considering the changes, said they determined that the district needs a "common framework" between its two high school, even if the schedule does not have to be the same.

That framework work must establish consistency in total instructional minutes between the two schools, opportunities for collaboration between their teachers, and a window for start and end times, they said.

"There are certain parameters that would be set in stone because it makes sense for student learning, it makes sense for equity," Neumann said. "And then there are other parts of the framework that makes sense to have uniqueness, because each school has some uniqueness."

Highland Park resident and HPHS teacher Susan Murray challenged senior administrators to shadow teachers to see how hard they work on a daily basis rather than implementing a "one-size-fits all" proposal.

"It is clear to me that still, after three years, Dr. Law and our board of education still do not know us, do not believe that we are professionals, and ultimately do not value the work we do that is in the best interest of our students," Murray said.

"Dr. Law, you have not been here for a negotiation cycle. And so for you to speak as to how it works feels inauthentic," she said. "The board needs to understand our role and stop trying to micromanage our district. Once again, you're creating problems when they don't exist, systematically."

Watch: Township High School District 113 June 7 2022 Special Board Meeting

Former DEA President Jerry Lavin, who retired Friday after two decades with the district, said that he had not planned to attend this week's special board meeting and called the dispute completely avoidable.

"I met with the superintendent in his office, I read the proposed working conditions letter, and immediately I said, 'The board is confusing accountability and autonomy.' It's not exactly rocket science," Lavin said. "I went through, I think, virtually all the arguments that were made here tonight ... I spoke repeatedly with the former Board President, Jodi Shapira, about all of this, going through all these arguments."

Although the board never publicly discussed the proposed working conditions changes, it did have closed-door meetings under the false pretense that board members were engaged in collective bargaining, Lavin said.

The longtime DHS teacher said that, contrary to district officials' claim from earlier in the meeting, he never declined an invitation to negotiate.

"I repeatedly accepted it, subject to our long tradition, decades and decades old, that we negotiate in the final year of the contract," Lavin said.

"Notwithstanding that we could not meet with you until when negotiations should start, I offered to meet with you off-the-record, informally. I invited you to my home! I invited you to my home, and said I would meet with you," he said. "Not to negotiate, but to talk this thing through, because I was confident that after successfully negotiating five memoranda of understanding over the last year and a half, I knew that if we could just sit down, we'd be able to talk this out and avoid all of this Sturm und Drang and this mishegoss — It's just nonsense, none of this had to happen."