The Palatine School District 15 school board has filed suit to block school nurses and other staff members who work with students with health and safety needs from participating in a strike that began Monday morning after contract negotiations failed.
The suit, filed at 8:48 a.m. Monday, asks a judge to bar “168 essential nurses and paraprofessional program assistants” from joining their colleagues on the picket line.
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“The board has determined that if certain essential employees represented by (the union) are permitted to strike, the strike will create a clear and present danger to the health and safety of approximately 374 of the district’s most vulnerable children ages 3–14,” the board wrote, according to a copy of the suit.
The suit stated that the district, where more than 1,100 of its 12,000 students have significant medical needs or severe emotional or mental disabilities, is bound by state and federal statute to accommodate those students’ individual needs, including administering medication for seizures, diabetes or other medical conditions.
More than 450 of the district’s support staff — including the nurses, secretaries and other support staff — went on strike after contract negotiations ended at 5 a.m. Monday morning with no resolution. Despite the strike, classes were in session at the district’s schools.
A spokesman for the Educational Support Personnel Association, which represents the striking workers, could not be immediately reached for comment on the suit, but the union previously said the school board had “refused to offer fair compensation to ESPA members.”
But the district said the school board “continues to bargain in good faith with optimism that a contract agreement is in close sight.”
The next negotiating session is scheduled for Wednesday, according to the district.
Members of the ESPA include nurses, teacher’s aides, clerical workers, secretaries and sign language interpreters. They work with some of the district’s most vulnerable students, including children with disabilities and special needs.
Union members had warned that a strike could shut down the entire district, but plans called for district administrators and office staff to help fill in for missing workers across the district’s 20 schools, which serve 12,000 students.
The union declared an impasse in negotiations in September, prompting the involvement of a federal mediator, so now the two sides don’t even meet in the same room but rather negotiate through the intermediary.
Most recently, the district offered a four-year contract with annual salary increases of 1.1 percent. The union asked for a five-year deal with 2.87 percent annual raises, plus extra pay for degrees or special circumstances. The district offer also includes health insurance for working a minimum of 27.5 hours per week and 174 days per year.
The district said it decided to hold classes Monday despite the strike “to minimize disruption to our children and families.” But officials said parents may keep their children home if they feel “it is in the best interest of his or her child.”
“Today has been a difficult day, as any organization would have when 400 employees don’t show up to work, but we are doing the best we can,” district spokeswoman Morgan Delack said. “Closing school would not only be an inconvenience for (students), but in many cases we feed these students breakfast and lunch and otherwise they may go unfed. We care about kids, and it’s in our community’s best interest to keep the doors open.”
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