For the second month in a row, Kewanee School District teachers Monday asked the school board to increase the salaries of teachers and other school district employees.

This time, they were joined by Mayor Gary Moore, who urged that “both sides come together with open minds,” and called on the union and the school board to “just do the right thing” and agree on a new union contract.

The Kewanee Education Association (KEA), which represents the district’s teachers and support staff, has been working without a contract since their latest contract expired Aug. 15.

Moore, who was the first of a dozen speakers who attended the monthly school board meeting to address the board, said that in his 25 years as a Kewanee police officer he was usually on the police union’s negotiating team.

“I have empathy for our union members,” he said.

While he was a police officer, Moore said, the police radio dispatchers received such low pay that they often found better-paying jobs elsewhere, and quit.

Due to union negotiations, he said, the city agreed to increase the dispatchers’ pay, which kept them on the job longer.

The mayor made a point echoed by most of those who addressed the board: If the Kewanee district doesn’t increase teacher pay, a number of highly-qualified teachers will find better-paying jobs elsewhere. He called on the board to “pay teachers a competitive wage that will keep them here.”

Kewanee High School teacher Cheryl Osborne said she is disturbed by the “level of hostility” between teachers and the school board and administration.

They should be on the same side, she said, adding, “It really comes down to the students, and what is best for them.”

While she is only in her second year of teaching at KHS, Osborne said she understands that for the last two three-year contracts, teachers settled for “considerably less than they wanted.” Now, she said, “It’s the school board’s turn to give a little more.”

Osborne cited the school district’s vision statement, which says, “We will be the standard by which other schools and districts measure their performance,” and pledges that the Kewanee district “will become a leader in the discovery and development of the potential of every individual that we have a responsibility for in a community of diverse needs and talents.”

“The educators are in,” she said. “We just need the school board to join us.”

Zach Murphy, a coach and parent in the district, said that in the past 10 years there has been a 20 percent decline in the number of students majoring in education in the nation’s colleges. This, Murphy said, is due to low teacher salaries nationwide.

Teachers, he said, on average make 32 percent less than people their own age who majored in other subjects in college.

“I want to be proud of our board,” Murphy said. “It’s really hard to do right now, guys.”