Oak Brook teachers, board can’t resolve differences

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Classes and extracurricular activities, like play rehearsals (above) would be on the line should District 53 teachers strike. Teachers say they have no intention of walking out. | Tamara Bell - Sun-Times Media file photo

Updated: March 3, 2012 11:24AM

The Butler 53 Board of Education has declared an impasse in its contract negotiations with the Oak Brook Education Association teachers union.

The board declared the impasse Jan. 12 and the board and OBEA submitted their final contract offers to each other Jan. 19.

Butler Board President Alan Hanzlik and Union President Andrew Griffith spent five hours talking Sunday in an attempt to reach a last-minute deal, but the board’s proposed four-year contract with a 3 percent increase each year wasn’t accepted.

Hanzlik and Superintendent Sandra Martin met with Oak Brook parents and taxpayers at the Oak Brook Library on Monday and Tuesday afternoons describing the process and where each side goes from here.

“We’ve gone as far as we can as a board,” Hanzlik said. “It’s time now to turn it over to the community to get direction.”

Griffith felt the district’s meetings with the community put the teachers, “in a bad light,” and says the OBEA is more than willing to continue to sit down and get an agreement done.

According to the district, the two parties have agreed to all points except salary increases.

The board says its final contract offer included a 2.3 percent increase for year one, 2.8 for year two and 3.3 for year three. The same information, provided by the district, claims the union’s final offer to be 3.3, 3.8 and 3.8 percent increases, respectively, for the three years.

A presentation at the library compared District 53 salaries to similar districts in Illinois; and Hanzlik expressed his concerns over rising teacher compensation.

Griffith said calling the impasse was “unusual,” given the two sides are less than 1 percent apart. He also questioned the board mentioning a possible teacher strike in its literature handed out to the community.

“(A strike) had never entered our mind,” Griffith said. “(The district) walked away from our last meeting with a mediator.

“The mediator still encouraged us to negotiate and find common ground. We want to get this done.”

Hanzlik said Illinois ranks third in state’s average teacher pay and that Butler 53 is the third highest of 3,199 elementary/middle school districts in Illinois in teacher pay.

“There are loads and loads of schools performing as well as we are and paying substantially less in salaries,” Hanzlik said. “What we’re trying to say is this model has to change because, at some point, it’ll get out of control.”

According to district information, Butler teachers are paid an average of $83,834 per school year for 181 days of work. The district’s benefits package, including health, dental, disability, term life and personal sick leave costs the district an additional $15,124 per year, per teacher.

“The OBEA has no intentions of striking and never had any intentions to strike,” Griffith said. “We were disappointed by the board mentioning a possible strike.”

Former District 53 Board member Stan Pruss wished his board would have been able to foresee the economic collapse and asked that teachers make concessions many others have been asked to in these times.

“(The village) has cut down on police and on fire,” Pruss said. “We’ve cut down on a lot of things; and the teachers have to take a little bit of the pain too.”

Teachers have been working without a contract for 11 months; and the two sides have had 24 bargaining sessions, the last three with a federal mediator.

If the teachers association were to call a strike, it would be required to provide a 10-day notice. Hanzlik said schools would close and more information would be available at that time.

“They have a right to strike,” Hanzlik said. “We’ve already heard from people that they’d help us (if they strike) and we’d seek that help.

“We very much value our teachers. They are terrific people. We have to recognize this is a process. It can be a more contentious process to resolve contracts.”