OPRF board approves teachers contract

• Reprints

Updated: March 3, 2012 11:24AM

The Oak Park-River Forest High School board formally approved a new two-year contract with its faculty at a special board meeting Tuesday night.

The contract provides for no pay increase next year.

The $55.25 million deal, which features both “hard” and “soft” pay freezes, is projected to save the school district $2.7 million over the next two years.

OPRF teachers ratified the employment contract on Monday afternoon, although they would not disclose the ratification vote.

District 200 Board President Dee Millard called the work on the contract “absolutely masterful.”

“There is no perfect contract that I have ever seen. We all worked together on this to do the best we could,” she said.

“Negotiations were limited to key items that are in the best interests of the district now,” Millard said.

The board vote, which was 6-1, reflected an ongoing disagreement between board member Sharon Paychek-Layman and the other six board members.

“The contract continues the status quo,” she said. “It does not put students first.”

Paychek-Layman favored a differentiated compensation plan for teachers based on merit and measurable performance reviews.

“There is no opportunity or recognition of compensation for master teachers,” she said.

Board member John Phelan disagreed. “The contract does make advances though not the dramatic advances my colleague (Paychek-Layman) imagines,” he said.

The contract agreement ends a process initiated in October, when the school board began considering how it would conduct negotiations.

Under the new contract, there will be no pay increase for the 2012-13 school year. In 2013-14, teacher salaries will not increase above the 2011-12 salary schedule, though they will be eligible for step and lane increases.

The $2.7 million in savings reflects a hike in the school district’s 403(b) pension matching share, which will go from 2.25 percent to 4 percent. If fully utilized, that will mean an extra $330,000 in district retirement expenditures.

In addition, the contract removes the current 8-period class schedule from the contract. Millard noted that gave administrators more flexibility in organizing the school day.

“We are excited because this opens the doors for all of us to work together and think differently about how we can best meet the specific needs and interests of our students without being tied to the 48-minute, 8-period, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. day,” said Superintendent Steven Isoye.

Phelan, the main negotiator, characterized the negotiating atmosphere as “cooperative.”

“There’s a very good relationship between the administration and the faculty right now, and I think it’s going to continue,” Phelan said.

“It was important to the public that we find ways to come up a financially responsible agreement. We all recognized it was all in the best interests of the students and the school district,” he said.

“The desire was to lock down a contract so we could go through the strategic planning process with our new superintendent,” Phelan said.

The contract change also makes an additional 32 teachers available to join 160 other faculty for various supervisory assignments next school year, including monitoring halls during the modified open campus lunch hour, and to staff a newly board-approved freshman mentoring program.

“I feel very good about the deal,” Phelan said. “It’s not only fiscally responsible, but it takes care of a number of student service concerns.”