Schools

Education Reform Comes to District 181

Board members were brought up to speed on recent changes to processes including tenure, faculty dismissals, and union negotiations.

At the District 181 Board of Education meeting Monday night, Associate Superintendant Mary Ticknor walked board members through the changes to tenure and layoff procedures and negotiation practices that can be expected after the education reform formerly known as Senate Bill 7 was .

According to Ticknor, the system by which tenure is granted will change significantly under the new law. Before the reform, a teacher needed four consecutive full-time years in the district with “satisfactory” administrative ratings each year to get tenure.

Under the new system—which will judge a teacher’s performance as “needs improvement,” “satisfactory,” “proficient,” or “excellent”— a teacher still needs four full-time years of experience. But instead of four “satisfactory” ratings, he or she will need a “proficient” or “excellent” rating in their fourth year following a “proficient” or “excellent” rating in either their second or third year.

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A teacher can also attain tenure after three years of “excellent” ratings, Ticknor said.

Also changed is the way in which districts lay off teachers.

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Performance ratings will take precedence over seniority and tenure status under the new law. The “last in, first out” way of reducing staff is no more, Ticknor said.

The administrator called the change “significant.”

“Theoretically, you can have a first-year teacher with an excellent rating and you can have a tenured teacher with a proficient rating and the tenured teacher with the proficient rating would be [dismissed] before the first-year teacher with the excellent rating,” Ticknor said.

Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Teachers' Association President Justin Horne wrote in a June 17 email that his union approves of the change in staff reduction practices.

“When a teacher isn't performing at this high standard after mentoring and guidance have been offered, and their rights haven't been violated, then we have supported dismissal of those teachers,” Horne wrote. “This new law only highlights what tenure was always supposed to achieve and we support it.”

Also changed under the new reform is that school boards now have the final say in teacher firings. An independent hearing officer, who used to make the final decision, will only make recommendations to the boards going forward.

Finally, effective immediately, labor negotiations between teacher unions and district administration are more likely to be opened up to the public under the new law, according to Ticknor.

Under the new rules, after 15 days of mediation an impasse can be declared. Both sides will then have seven days to exchange final offers, which are then held by the mediator for another seven days. If no agreements are reached between the union and the district by then, the mediator will send both best offers to the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board to be posted publicly on the board’s website. The district also has to alert the media of the final offers.

If no agreements are reached after 14 days of the offers being public, the union can strike after supplying a 10-day notice of intent.

(Update: On Monday, July 18, in early August after two unsuccessful negotiation periods.)

Ticknor said the new bargaining rules encourage transparency for the sake of efficiency.

“They want public to better understand the issues between the parties,” Ticknor said, “and it’s intended to encourage more good-faith discussions … prior to publication.”

Assistant Superintendant for Instruction Bruce Law of District 86, which District 181 feeds into, was not totally convinced transparency is a good thing during an interview in June.

“It’s such a change from the past,” Law said. “If it were an ESPN sports event, I don’t know if that would help the process.” 


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