According to various reports, a group of Oak Park District 97 teachers decided to show up to school dressed in black after some of their colleagues claimed that the stipends they’re paid for facilitating various extracurricular activities such as competitive athletics, concert band and yearbook didn’t show up in their checks for the most recent pay period.
Those teachers also claim that stipend amounts previously agreed upon in the new collective bargaining agreement have been reduced for some summer positions.
By the account of one teacher who requested anonymity, the teachers’ stipends were due in their May 26 paychecks, but on May 25 “all these people got their emails saying your stipend will not [be included in your pay this period] because there’s some discrepancy,” the teacher said.
The teacher noted that, in response to the non-payment, teachers across the district decided to wear black to work today to protest the action. Even those who don’t receive stipends wore the color in solidarity, the teacher said.
Another anonymous teacher wrote in an email that “there is currently a huge issue with the current D97 contract. Despite the contract being signed and approved months ago, the District [sic] is not honoring the contract as it stands. Stipends have not been paid out to teachers and although teachers were hired for summer positions for $3,000 stipends, the District [sic] states the pay will be $2,400.”
But the non-payments, which may initially appear to have sprung from nowhere, have actually been a rather open issue going back at least to a May 5 board meeting. During that meeting, D97 Superintendent Al Roberts mentioned a pay discrepancy identified in the Oak Park Teachers Association (OPTA) contract between the district’s extended school year (ESY), prep for success and math enrichment summer programs.
“[We] thought that the amount of time [spent] on ESY was less than the amount of time spent on [prep for success],” Roberts said on May 5. “Both spend 80 hours, which is a difference in pay, actually an inequality, [which] we’d like to get squared away. Both of them should be a stipend of $3,000. Right now, [ESY] is listed [at $2,400].”
Roberts said that the math enrichment program “should’ve been a lower tier and that was listed at $3,000.” He said that stipend will be adjusted to $2,400. The superintendent noted that the changes would be made after meeting with [OPTA co-president Jennifer Nelson]. He also said that a Memorandum of Understanding between the board and the OPTA would need to be approved to clarify the changes.
At a May 12 meeting, however, Roberts said that the OPTA “was ready to sign a letter of agreement […] to rectify some issues that got away from us in the negotiations,” but that he and Nelson discovered some additional issues that lacked clarity. Roberts said he and Nelson should “probably sit and [resolve the issues] face-to-face.”
“We’d probably pay those stipends in June, but we’ve got to get it right first,” Roberts said.
It still isn’t clear whether or not the OPTA and the administration has resolved the discrepancy issues or whether or not the issues regarding the discrepancies between the summer positions are the reason why other extracurricular stipends for non-summer activities haven’t been issued. Neither Roberts nor OPTA officials could be reached for comment.
Accounts from some teachers, however, indicate that the stipend discrepancies may reflect a larger rift between the administration and the many OPTA members who voted against the current teacher contract.
“This administration has really kicked us in the butt for several years,” said one anonymous teacher. “Many people voted ‘no’ to [the current contract]. Only 13 more people voted ‘yes’,” the teacher said, adding that with only two weeks until school is out, the OPTA leadership and the administration “haven’t said one thing about when one those stipends will be worked out.”
The OPTA is set to hold elections tonight.
