District 15 Support Staffers Go On Strike

PALATINE, IL — Educational support staff workers for Community Consolidated School District 15 schools went on strike Monday. The work stoppage comes after the district and the 435-member Educational Support Personnel Association — the union that represents the school system's secretaries, nurses, sign language interpreters and other clerical staffers — couldn't agree on a contract, despite working to hammer out a deal in an 11th-hour bargaining session Sunday. District schools will remain open during the strike.

"District 15 made the decision to keep schools open to minimize disruption to our children and families," Supt. Scott Thompson said in a statement Monday. "The district wants to honor the students, parents and staff who are dedicated to and dependent on our 20 schools remaining open."

Parents can keep their children during the strike, and the absences will not be counted as unexcused, Thompson said. He added that some staffers might still come to work during the work stoppage, but the district doesn't know if school nurses and program assistants who help students with medical needs will be on hand to provide that support. The district will try to find replacement staff for the support workers during the strike, Thompson said Friday. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest Palatine news. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

In a statement Monday, Thompson said "great progress" had been made during Sunday's bargaining session until the union's leadership walked out. But Bridgette Shanahan, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Education Association, told Patch that "next to no movement" had been made during around 12½ hours of negotiations and that the union delivered its final offer at around 4:30 a.m. Monday, an offer the district refused without countering.

According to Shanahan, retirement benefits are one of the sticking points preventing a deal from being reached. She said support workers' retirement benefits have remained the same since 1992 at a total of $9,000 — $3,000 the year the employee retires and then $3,000 annually for the first two years of retirement.

The district would like to do away with those retirement benefits, however, Shanahan said. The union's research, though, shows the district has enough money to keep the retirement benefits, as well as give members a 2.5 percent salary hike, she added.

The next bargaining session is set for Wednesday.

Patch will continue to update this story.

Image via Community Consolidated School District 15

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