Teachers in a Riverdale school district were expected to be back in classrooms Tuesday after coming to terms on a tentative contract agreement, ending a nearly weeklong strike.
The resolution of the work stoppage came during a Monday meeting of the school board in Patton Elementary District 133, with teachers and parents attending.
The 19 teachers in the single-school district walked off the job March 8 after contract negotiating sessions involving a mediator failed to produce a contract.
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Union members still need to vote on the four-year contract, which would provide raises of 5% each year, according to Sabrina Hawthorne, president of Local 943 of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which represents Patton teachers.
She told school board members that teachers are “glad this has come to an end.
Hawthorne said that teachers “might be a little exhausted, but we are going to get the job done” and that they are “eager to be back in the classroom.”
Teachers had been working under the terms of the prior contract, which expired in August, and negotiations on a new agreement began in June, according to Hawthorne.
The union had initially proposed a three-year contract, with raises of 6% each year, but a subsequent proposal was a four-year agreement with 5% annual raises.
The district initially offered the union a four-year contract with salary raises of 4.5% the first year then 4% each year thereafter. It had cast the union’s initial offer as straining the district’s finances.
In a posting at the district’s website March 7, school board President LaTroy Robinson said that the “financial requests of the Union are not fiscally sustainable and not in the best interests of the District, its students or community.”
Hawthorne had said that teacher salaries in the district have made it less competitive compared with surrounding districts as far as holding onto and attracting quality teachers.
The district maintained that it pays a competitive wage and ranks 20 out of all 39 south suburban elementary districts in teacher pay.
The Illinois School Report Card from 2020-21 says the average teacher salary in District 133 is $57,540 and 56% of teachers had a master’s degree or higher. The same Illinois Report Card says the average administration salary was $111,966.
“This (new contract) could possibly help in retaining teachers and bringing new teachers on board,” Hawthorne said Monday.
Hawthorne, a fifth grade teacher who has worked in the district for 20 years, said beyond the teacher pay issue, students suffer because the district lacks programs in art, music, foreign language and technology.
The district said it has publicized job openings in some of those areas but has had few applicants.
At the start of Monday’s meeting, board members went into closed session, then were joined by Hawthorne and other members of the teachers’ union’s negotiating team, coming to an agreement on the tentative deal, Hawthorne said.
She said that a ratification vote has not yet been scheduled but she expected teachers to approve the tentative offer.
About 60 people attended Monday’s meeting in Patton’s gymnasium, including parents such as Tiara Isom, mother of a kindergartner at the school.
She said that her daughter received little to no instruction while teachers were out, and that her child was not assigned any homework during the work stoppage.
Isom said her 6-year-old told her that while in school “they were just watching movies and coloring” the entire day.
She and other parents who spoke during the board meeting were critical of what they said was a lack of communication regarding the events leading up to the strike as well as how students were continuing to learn during the strike. Some parents said they were not aware of any discord with teachers until they learned about a strike date being set.
Robinson and Hawthorne both encouraged parents to regularly attend school board meetings to keep tabs on what’s going on at Patton, and one parent said she hoped that a parent-teacher association could be formed.