This went to the press last night: Parents and community members filed a grievance and a formal Request for Review of CUSD 205 administration and CUSD 205 Board of Education, on Sept. 18, 2014. RESTORE 174 members requested that the Public Access Counselor at the State Attorney General’s office investigate potential violations of the Open Meeting Act. We further filed a grievance with Knox County Regional Office of Education and the Office of the General Counsel at the Illinois State Board of Education, and requested that they take action. Specifically, we argue that the Board and the administration refused to respond to the community’s requests to review their decisions and failed to serve the students in our district. (Please see attached: OMA and ISBE.) The Community Unit School District 205 School Board adopted a school calendar, today, of 168 days of instruction—six fewer than the 174 Illinois requires for full disbursement of monies. Publicly, administrators and the Board have said that the six days were impossible to include in the calendar as a result of the two week long GEA strike. Documents produced from a FOIA request, however, reveal that their goal in shortening the calendar was to make union members “feel the consequence of their action [financially],” to cause union members “to doubt their leadership,” and to “recognize” Board members’ “hurt feelings over treatment by GEA negotiators.” (Please see attached: FOIA.) The Board adopted this calendar despite overwhelming objection from the community. On Sept. 8th, 23 community members addressed the board to ask that the six days be added back to the calendar. Numerous parents wrote letters objecting to the shortened calendar. RESTORE 174 members presented a petition with 1,170 local signatures requesting that the days be restored, and submitted a formal request to the Board and to GEA (the teacher’s union), asking that they signify their willingness to discuss the calendar further by Sept. 18th. (Please see attached: MEMOS.) At the public meeting on Sept. 8, before the FOIA documents were made public, two Board Members responded to parents’ comments by saying that they could and hoped to add these days back to the calendar, while one member was ambivalent and another spoke against it. The FOIA documents reveal that the Board and administrators were arguing about the six days well after the strike had concluded. These documents and comments indicate that the Board considered the calendar separately from and subsequent to collective bargaining negotiations. The decision to keep the shortened calendar appears to have been made at a Special Closed Meeting on Sept. 10. On Sept. 12, the Board officially failed to respond to the request of 1,170 of their constituents that they “make the school year compliant with the minimum number of student attendance days as required by the State of Illinois, thereby ensuring that the needs of all students are met.” On Sept. 18, the Board officially failed to respond to the formal request that they and the GEA agree simply to discuss the total number of instructional days for 2014-15. The GEA responded, via President David Sharp, to the above request as follows: The Galesburg Education Association recognizes the importance of restoring the six student days to the school calendar. We are willing to work with the Galesburg School Board in an effort to reinstate these days. It is possible to restore the student days without reopening the contract. This can be done by writing a memo of understanding. This memo would address the issue of the school calendar and could be attached to the existing contract. Both the G.E.A. and the Galesburg School Board could work together and write the language to return the student attendance days to the school calendar. Both parties would then sign the memo of understanding and the days would be reinstated. It is our belief that this would allow for all parties to move forward and accomplish what we are here to do, educate our students to the fullest of our ability. RESTORE 174 is a group of parents and other community members who came together on August 29th, when it was announced that the GEA strike had ended but that the Return to Work agreement docked six days from the school year. More information is available at restore174 . RESTORE 174 members have submitted a more extensive FOIA request and are presently considering other options. Please contact me if you have any questions. Thanks for your attention. Emily Anderson
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 20:09:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015