With a simple majority of its 145 voters, the River Forest Education Association on Thursday ratified a new teacher contract. Once reviewed and approved by the River Forest School District 90 board of education, the agreement will be final.
According to teacher union co-president Cindy Crannell, the tentative agreement struck in late February was presented to its members on March 3. Two days later, it was approved by membership.
Terms of the deal were not available and will not be until the school board approves it, likely at a special meeting next week, according to a district spokesperson. However, Crannell said teachers would receive retroactive pay to last August when the prior contract ended.
A previous tentative agreement was rejected by district teachers.
“Membership really saw we went back, (and) ‘We heard you,’” Crannell said. “‘These were the things you identified as sticking points, these are the things we brought to administration.’
“We did better on all of them and that showed our membership that this was the district’s last, best and final offer and we did better in all these areas. We weren’t just shifting money.”
Crannell said the union vote was conducted March 3 in the Roosevelt Middle School auditorium. Roughly 20 minutes afterward, Crannell, co-president Lauren Ortiz and others were summoned from outside to receive the news that the measure had passed.
“I think I screamed, I was so excited,” Crannell said. “Lauren and I hugged each other We were saying it was almost a year to the date we started the process of asking the board to start the bargaining process.”
A district statement attributed to Crannell, Ortiz and superintendent Dr. Edward Condon, said, “We are pleased to have reached this important point together in our progress toward finalizing the contract for our outstanding teachers.”
The new tentative agreement was the result of a “sidebar” negotiation session held in late February with a mediator. A sidebar negotiation session involves a small group from the full negotiation teams and is used to explore possible compromises ahead of a formal proposal or response. Crannell said there were six key areas that needed to be addressed in the original Nov. 10 tentative agreement that was voted down in early December by teachers.
With a score of 85.36, Lincoln Elementary School earned Exemplary status for the third year in a row according to the Illinois Report Card released last year by the Illinois State Board of Education. Willard Elementary School (86.17) was declared Exemplary for the fourth straight year. Those are schools which rank in the top 10% of the state. The next 67% are considered Commendable, which is what Roosevelt Middle School earned.
The year-long negotiations were an odyssey with plenty of ups and downs, Crannell said, but she came away with an important lesson.
“I think it’s to always ask questions and push for transparency,” she said. “When something isn’t transparent you have to push for transparency. Being co-president, it forced me to ask questions.
“I feel like what we have gained is not all in the contract. What I think has shifted is the union is stronger and it earned respect at the table.”
