At a forum hosted by the Buzz Café on Feb. 11, nine out of the 10 candidates running for four open seats on the District 97 school board availed themselves to a mixed audience of diners, about a dozen of whom were there to listen to the candidates’ plans and a handful of others who were there to simply dine.
The candidates discussed a range of issues, from artificial turf fields to the academic achievement gap. But the event, coming just days after the sudden death of D97 board member Peter Traczyk, was perhaps most notable as a testament to what may be one of the late community leader’s most lasting achievements—his role in drafting a new collective bargaining agreement with faculty.
The new contract, which Traczyk helped drafted with fellow board members, is considered by both the district administration and the Oak Park Teachers Association as “transformative” for how it reconciles paying teachers what they believe they are worth and keeping the school district financially solvent.
The new contract replaced the traditional compensation system of 25 steps and eight lanes—a model that is a staple among public school districts across the country—with a new compressed salary schedule that features “four bands and five recognitions that emphasize teacher effectiveness.”
Bob Spatz, the current school board president and a candidate in the
April election, said one of its biggest selling points was that “it increases starting salary [so] it will now be comparable to the high school and Chicago Public Schools, so we can recruit the best teachers that are available and particularly recruit teachers coming out of college.”
The candidates were virtually unanimous in their praise of the new contract, although that adulation was tempered by what many said was their distance from, and unfamiliarity with, the negotiating process.
“The process sounds like it was very well thought out,” said Holly Spurlock, a Groupon executive. “They came to an agreement once and then had to go back to the drawing board. I respect two parties on the opposite side coming to an agreement and taking the time to think through all the issues.”
“This is a testament to Peter’s ability to come up with a compromise and to find a midway between fiscal sustainability and teacher happiness,” said D97 board member Jim O’Connor, who is up for reelection.
Rick Boultinghouse III, a theater executive, said that, over the long-term, the contract would be good for the citizens of Oak Park, adding that principals would now need to pay close attention to their staff.
“I like the fact that it takes significant effort to reward teachers who take steps to better their education and career,” said Boultinghouse.
“This teacher’s contract is such a major accomplishment for teachers in the district,” said Rupa Datta, an education policy researcher. “We have as a community a lot of aspirations to lead and really be exemplars of where we should be headed and this is totally an example of doing that and being that,” she said.
But the contract was not without some relatively minor critiques, namely that offered by Marcus Croom, a teacher and school administrator.
“Broadly I like the contract, but being from North Carolina, the teachers here are being paid to do things that we did just because we were teachers in North Carolina,” he said, referencing the state’s relatively low level of teacher unionization.
“Overall I like it, [but] I do not like that if a teacher gets paid a stipend to do professional development someway they can’t also get credit for it—so you’re incentivizing on one hand the ability to go out and get a professional development credit for something but at the same time it’s not a sweet deal for the teacher who also wants to be able to get professional development credit,” he said.
Croom said that he does like the overall simplification of the pay scale and that the contract pushes teachers toward attaining national board certification.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com