District 300 School Board Refuses to Allow Public to See New Contract Language

As this audience shot shows, the public is interested in what the District 300 school board does.

From the press release below from the District 300 School Board and its teachers’ union, it is evident that the taxpaying public will not be trusted to read the proposed new contract with its teachers’ union.

District 300, which is proud of its record of transparency, loses points big time by concealing the most expensive document its board ever considers.

The union-school board joint press release follows:

JOINT NEWS RELEASE

FROM BOARD OF EDUCATION

AND LEAD 300

District 300 School Board and Local Education Association of District 300 reach tentative agreement on new contract

CARPENTERSVILLE – On Thursday, May 26, 2011, the Board of Education of Community Unit School District 300 and the Local Education Association of District 300, IEA/NEA, reached a tentative agreement resolving economic and language issues.

The tentative agreement is a positive and collaborative accomplishment achieved through more than eight weeks of negotiations.

The LEAD union will bring the tentative agreement to its membership today (Friday, May 27, 2011). A vote to ratify the agreement is planned for Tuesday, May 31, 2011.

The terms will not be released until officially approved by the teachers’ union and Board. (Emphasis added.)

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Want to read the current contract? You can find it here.

The cover of the 2006-2010 District 300 teachers' contract, which, by law, must be posted on its web site.


Comments

District 300 School Board Refuses to Allow Public to See New Contract Language — 11 Comments

  1. This is why teachers keep voting in scam-the-taxpayers board members.

    Mike Skala is a scam-the-public, lie-to-the-public Board President in Huntley who uses the fool-the-public scam of saying he is a Republican.

    Of course the Northwest Herald never objects to the taxpayers being scammed ahead of time and Mike Tryon NEVER objects to this.

    Pam Althoff is a retired teacher and “Republican” Senator in McHenry who laughs how this scam policy is such a common practice from district to district.

    Liberal school board members are happy to keep stuff secret until it is legally too late and ruinous. The union laughs how abuses can’t become public until it is legally too late. They laugh how stupid, liberal overspenders are the board members.

  2. YMWTN, what does Mike Skala have to do with a story about District 300? Are you still bitter that he beat you by a landslide in your attempt to be reelected to the District 158 school board?

  3. The Taxpayers are getting royally kicked in the backside by politicians who support unsustainable bucks to Teachers. The politicians then have happy soldiers on the ground who will back them in elections, distribute literature, etc..

    Pacify the public and pass a darned law that says teachers have to pay a measly 9.4% of their own money into their pensions and they still go around it. Don’t tell me the folks who voted to pass the law didn’t know that wasn’t going to happen. One day, I hope that pacification gets them voted out of office.

    Now, we’ll also get stuck with the increase they’re supposed to pay in when they also negotiate that money away in contracts with school boards loaded with biased members.

    What a scam indeed. Hey kiddies, if there’s any money left in your piggy banks or college savings or your sock drawer – remember it’s not yours anymore.

  4. I have never seen a school district that allows public review of a collective bargaining agreement before it is signed by the Board and Union.

    Their excuse is they don’t want to negotiate in public.

    However, after the negotiations are completed and before the agreement is signed, I do think there should be a public review and comment period, since it involves huge future expenditures of taxpayer dollars. It’s the single largest expenditure of a property owners tax dollars.

    I think the public can get residents to sign a petition and present it to the school board. The petition would require a public review and comment period of the collective bargaining agreement prior to signature by the Board and Union.

    The current LEAD 300 contract expires June 30, 2011.

    Education Reform SB 630 is awaiting Quinn approval. There are some changes in it regarding negotiations of collective bargaining agreements, although I don’t know off the top of my head if it addresses this situation.

  5. The problem is that there is no guarantee that the tentative agreement will be ratified by the union or approved by the board. Making contract details public before ratification can make it much more difficult to reach a new agreement should the first agreement fail to ratify. It may be poor public disclosure but sensible labor relations.

  6. Did everyone in this state (including city workers) forget about the ILLINOIS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT?

  7. and isn’t it the public, that pays for the public school system MARK? Taxpayers have a right to hear what there doing…….before, during, and after. Anyone that says otherwise needs to get out of this country!!!!!!!!!

  8. With the recent election, the D300 Board is largely made up of the same group that was in place when the referendum was passed in 2006.

    This group violated the open meetings act numerous times (and gave a post referendum bonus to the superintendent).

    To drift back to their old ways shouldn’t come as a surprise.

    The reform that took place 4 years ago with John Ryan’s defeat of the then current president is over.

    Despite her idiotic comments that cost her re-election, Clark was a watchdog against such shenanigans as well.

    With the both of them now gone, this is only the beginning.

  9. You can’t have an open and honest collective bargaining process without privacy for deliberation. If you don’t think your school board is doing their job in getting the best contract possible then elect a new school board, simple as that.

    If you had an open debate in public then you have grandstanding, the union would pour money into consultants and PR people to make the board, which would be criticized for spending money on such frivolity by the public, look stupid.

    You can’t change a fundamental tenet of the collective bargaining process without changing the law. Thus putting a contract that has not been approved out in public is neither helpful nor warranted in the process.

  10. Also Cal, did you attend D300’s last budget hearing? Were there this many people there? I can almost guarantee there weren’t. The school board BY LAW has to put their budget on display for public inspection for 30 days before it is adopted. Any person can go into the district office and ask to inspect the proposed budget, I bet the chief business officer would even sit down and go over it with you.

    BY LAW the board is required to give public notice and have a hearing where the public can comment on the proposed budget. Ever see any of that in Springfield?

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