Evanston/Skokie School District 65 teachers have worked without a collectively bargained contract since August, having negotiated with the administration since March without agreeing to a deal.
According to an email that District 65 Educators’ Council leaders sent to union members over the weekend, contract talks hit an impasse when the two sides reached discussions on salaries and benefits. As a result, the DEC and district bargaining teams are entering federal mediation, where a third party will act as a liaison between both sides in an attempt to facilitate an agreement.
“While DEC understands D65 is in real financial trouble, DEC doesn’t feel the problem should be solved on the backs of the educators,” the union’s executive board and bargaining team wrote to teachers on Saturday. “Let us be abundantly clear, ever since we began financial negotiations, D65 has been transparent in that they are hoping to solve their financial woes and mismanagement by balancing the budget on our backs, while refusing to accept or acknowledge their own administrative excess.” (emphasis their own)
The fiscal year 2025 budget that the school board approved in September assumes a 1.7% increase in employee salaries. Under the previous collective bargaining agreement that was in effect from the fall of 2019 through this past summer, teachers received base annual pay raises of 2.1%, 1.9%, 2.5%, 2.5% and 2.65%. But those increases for each of the last three years were a far cry from the pandemic-induced inflation seen across the country. For example, the inflation rate was:
- 5.3% in August 2021, so teachers’ wages lagged 2.8 percentage points behind inflation that year
- 8.3% in August 2022, so teachers’ wages lagged 5.8 percentage points behind inflation that year
- 3.7% in August 2023, so teachers’ wages lagged 1.05 percentage points behind inflation that year
Combining those three years, salaries now are about 9.6 percentage points behind where they would be had they been tied to inflation. The 2025 budget presentation from Robert Grossi, District 65’s financial consultant, said that each 1% additional increase in base salaries for teachers equals $750,000 added to the budget. Since the approved budget only assumes a 1.7% increase, if mediation results in the teachers getting the kind of base pay raise that inflation suggests they are owed, that could add $6 million to the budget.
And even if the union agrees to take an increase less than inflation, it could have a significant impact on the ongoing conversation on a deficit reduction plan.
“Our bargaining team quickly realized, as they returned to the table to discuss financial issues, that the district team refused to improve their initial financial offer even though DEC continued to negotiate in an attempt to move the needle. At the time DEC requested mediation, D65 was unwilling to move, even though DEC was confident that the district’s repeated initial offer would be unacceptable to its membership,” DEC leadership said.
“It should be noted that in the last contract, DEC accepted lower percentage increases to help the district with then predicted budgetary shortfalls.”
In the email, DEC also criticized administrators on the district’s bargaining team, who “came unprepared” and “didn’t do their homework.” Union leadership referenced “a revolving door of representatives” on the district side, which forced the two sides “to continually repeat issues.”
“The district fully expected that these issues, which they designated as ‘DEC issues,’ be solved solely by the DEC team and did not partake in meaningful collaboration,” the email said.
In a statement to the RoundTable, the district declined to comment on the details of contract negotiations, only saying that “significant progress has been made toward our shared goals in support of students and families,” and “Our School Board and administration highly values our educators and recognizes the pivotal role they play each and every day in the lives of students.”
Meanwhile, Trisha Baker, the DEC president, said in a statement to the RoundTable that “our proposals have been reasonable and address our district’s fiscal realities. Without competitive wages, we risk losing talented educators to neighboring districts like Glenview, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Skokie and Chicago. The extended negotiations are placing undue stress on our educators. We must settle this contract to refocus on what matters most: our students.”
DEC members are planning to demonstrate in favor of a fair contract at the next school board meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 18, at the Joseph E. Hill Early Childhood Center.
District 65 ‘unwilling to move’ on pay raises for teachers, union says is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.
