McSweeney Aims To Give Public Right to See Teacher Contracts Two Days Before Board Consideration

The Cary Grade School Board already lets the public see proposed teacher contracts before they are passed.

Crystal Lake High School District 155 Board

The Crystal Lake High District 155 School Board did not.

Now State Rep. David McSweeney proposes in House Bill 309 to require internet posting of such contracts for two days before a board vote is taken.

A synopsis of the legislation is below:

Amends the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act.

With regard to an agreement reached between the representatives of educational employees and an educational employer, provides that in addition to any approval action that has previously been ratified, the final language of the written contract must be approved by the governing board of the educational employer and posted on a publicly accessible website at least 48 hours prior to such approval.

Effective immediately.

The final language voted upon by District 155’s Board has not yet been released, although the contact was approved January 21st.

The summary released is here.


Comments

McSweeney Aims To Give Public Right to See Teacher Contracts Two Days Before Board Consideration — 9 Comments

  1. Though I rip on mcsweeney a lot, I agree with this.

    He should go even further and make it all government employees.

  2. I’d like to see it published two weeks prior, rather than two days.

    If it’s our money we should be allowed disclosure.

  3. This is a good start but it’s lacking some key components.

    It’s a good start because it indicates the final language should be posted.

    Presumably that would do away with boards agreeing on a tentative agreement, and then the final agreement is often released weeks or months later.

    +++++++

    Here are suggested improvements to the bill.

    1. The change document, aka redline document, should be the required document.

    What’s that?

    Commonly, it’s underline text for additions, stricken text for deletions, with the changes in red for easy identification.

    Why is that important?

    School district collective bargaining agreements (cba’s) are typically 50 – 75 pages.

    No one has time to look at two 50 – 75 page contracts, word for word, to identify the changes.

    Plus, why should they have to?

    The negotiating teams (union and administration / board) already have the redline agreement.

    That’s news to some board members.

    Sometimes the administration / board negotiating team does not bother to share the redline agreement with the full board.

    Many board members are too clueless about cba’s to 1) ask for the redline agreement and 2) understand it even if they had it.

    ++++++++++

    2. Public notification that a cba redline agreement is available should be posted on the HOME page of the district.

    Otherwise, the district could bury it anywhere, and not even on the district website.

    Incidentally, ideally, the state would maintain a central repository of all educational and public sector cbas, and require the district / government employer to post the proposed cba’s not only on their website, but also on the central repository website.

    3. There should be an opt in email and text distribution list so anyone who wants to be notified when a proposed cba is available, is notified via email or text, as soon as the agreement is posted on the district home page.

    Otherwise, the taxpayer has to look at the home page every day (or as written, the entire district website or heaven knows what other website some sneaky district might choose) to see if such a document has been posted.

    Once again, no one has time to look at a school district website every day to see if such a document has been posted.

    And even if they did proactively check the district website once a day to see if a cba has been posted, a full 24 hours could go by before they are aware of the posting, leaving them with just 24 hours to drop everything and review the document.

    4. A summary document should accompany the change / redline document.

    The summary document contains the highlights of the newly negotiated agreement.

    Most people read the summary document and not the change / redline document.

    Both are important documents.

    +++++++++

    Keep in mind.

    The rank and file union members get to vote on whether or not to ratify the proposed cba.

    The rank and file taxpayers do not get to vote on whether or not to ratify the proposed cba.

    It’s not a level playing field.

    It’s no understatement to say the taxpayer is in the last row of the right field upper deck and the game is being played in the dark.

  4. Did you all forget that WE elect the board members, just like WE elected McSweeney?

  5. McSweeney is such a better legislator than Reeky Rinos Reick and Pam Althoff.

  6. Reick a RINO?

    Yeah, I guess he is, he keeps saying we need more immigrants. I guess he says that because he doesn’t want ‘trouble’ at his Harvard, IL home.

    He’s pretty harmless, tho, as far it goes.

  7. Re: “McSweeney is such a better legislator than Reeky Rinos Reick and Pam Althoff.”

    I hope the commenter does not vote!

    It appears McSweeney has crawled up a very dark hole that has a tinge of brown and smells very bad.

    He wants to do for the County Board Chairman what Althoff and the rest of Springfield did for the Township Highway Commissioner – create a dictatorship!!

    Nothing wrong with needing more immigrants as long as they come here LEGALLY!!

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