About 200 members of the Kewanee Education Association (KEA) came to Monday’s school board meeting urging faster action on a new contract for the union with the Kewanee School District.
Wearing orange shirts and black pants, a number of the members of the union called on the board to negotiate a new contract sooner than later. Bridget Shanahan of the Illinois Education Association, with which the KEA is affiliated, attended the meeting and estimated that 200 local educators were there.
The KEA represents the district’s teachers, as well as support staff — aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and others.
The latest contract between the KEA and the district expired Aug. 15. Union members have been working without a contract, and the two sides have met with a federal mediator in an effort to reach an agreement.
“We need to get to the bargaining table and we need to get this contract settled,” KEA President Ruth Kapacinskas said during the public comments part of Monday’s board meeting.
“This is urgent,” Kapacinskas said. “It’s important. And ultimately, it’s going to help our students in the classroom.”
Kapacinskas said she was “concerned that we’re experiencing a stalling technique” on the part of the school administration. She said that six years ago, the contract didn’t get settled until the year after it expired. The settlement also came several months after the expiration date three years ago, Kapacinskas said.
She called for focusing on the classroom, not lobbying for a new contract.
Pam Schneider, a sixth-grade teacher at Central School, told the board that she typically works more than 16 hours per week beyond the hours required by the union contract. She also spent nearly $160 of her own money on school supplies and other things she needs to do her job.
“Almost every teacher here has done about the same, or something more,” she said.
Cary Laue, who also teaches at Central, said at least 60 percent of the Kewanee district’s teachers have considered leaving the district for a better-paying job elsewhere.
Several of the speakers were given standing ovations by the union members in the audience in the Kewanee High School auditorium.
After all of the teachers had spoken, board President Jeff Johnson said he had spoken with several union members who said they didn’t know the details of the contract negotiations. Johnson said he wondered if the KEA’s negotiating team was sharing details of the negotiations with union membership.
Shanahan said the law prohibits the negotiators from communication details of the contract talks with the members unless a tentative agreement has been reached. No such agreement is on the table yet, she said.
Shanahan said that according to the Illinois School Report Card, the average salary increase for teachers in Illinois has risen $9,000 in the past five years. In Kewanee, the increase has been $2,465, she said.
