For the first time in 16 years, administration and teachers at Lake Forest High School agreeably settled a new employment contract — and they did it a year early.
The District 115 Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a teacher’s contract that will take the district through the end of the 2019 school year. As part of the agreement, the school board agreed to tear up the current contract and add a 1 percent hike in base pay for for 2015-2016. That’s in addition to the 2.7 percent increase already agreed upon.
For the following school year of 2016-2017, teachers will see an average pay increase of 4.4 percent, said Deputy Superintendent Allen Albus. The increase will be a bit lower for teachers hired after the 2011-2012 school year and a bit higher for those hired before.
Pay increases for the school year of 2017-2018 will be based on a formula that adds a “step” (experience) increase of 1.5 percent plus .75 percent of inflation as measured by the consumer price index, Albus said. The pay increase for the 2018-2019 school year will be a 1.5 percent increase plus 60 percent of inflation.
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The new pay schedule will be posted on the district website in the next few days, Albus said.
Coming to an agreement on this contract “eliminates the possibility of interruption in instruction,” said Board President Reese Marcusson.
“It couldn’t happen without an extreme cultural shift,” added Board Secretary Ted Moorman.
In November 1999, teachers worked without a contract for five months, according to baiduhai reports. A new contract came only after the threat of a strike and the assistance of a federal mediator.
In November 2006, teachers did informational picketing after working on a contract that had expired in July. The contract that followed “drove the district into the red,” said Superintendent Michael Simeck.
In September 2012, teachers went on an eight-day strike.
“All the parties wanted to avoid what had happened in 2012,” said Tom Gigiano, a teacher who has served on the bargaining committee since 2005 and was lead negotiator in the talks leading up the just-approved contract. “We all viewed that as a failure.”
The school board, teachers and administration began low-key talks in 2012 in an effort to understand each other’s point of view, according to Gigiano. For example, one of the topics was developing a new school day schedule.
“The idea of having a schedule and changing the school day brought a lot of anxiety to the staff,” Gigiano said. To allay that anxiety, the teachers and administration and teachers have agreed to work together to create a new schedule by the end of 2015, Gigiano said.
Teachers voted 108 to 14 for the contract on June 5, he said.
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