Unit 4, teachers plan contract talks

CHAMPAIGN – School and teacher union negotiators in Champaign will meet later this month to discuss the contract proposal teachers have made.

Contract negotiations began this week for Champaign teachers, whose three-year contract will expire at the end of June.

Negotiating teams for Unit 4 and the teachers began formal talks Monday, and met before that to establish ground rules.

The Champaign Federation of Teachers presented its proposal to the district on Monday. They'll meet again May 20 to discuss the teachers' proposal, as well as the district's.

"The teachers have worked real hard to give input to the proposals," said Deb Foertsch, president of the Champaign Federation of Teachers. "We've had committees meet and give input and we had a survey of all of our teachers. I'm hoping everyone has felt included in the process of reviewing certain pieces of the contract.

"We saw some common issues (with the district) we know we're going to have to address," she said. "We work fairly closely with the district, so we know some places where we might need this piece of language cleaned up, so there is clarity for teachers and clarity for the district."

Foertsch said wages and health care and insurance costs are always issues for teachers.

School board President Dave Tomlinson said it is important for the district to live within its means, but that he wants to provide the best contract he can.

"I don't want to go over budget. I don't want deficit spending. (But) I want to give our teachers and staff the most we can, because they work hard," Tomlinson said.

"We worked well with the support staff (who negotiated a new contract last year) and I have no reason to believe it won't work well with the teachers' union too," he added.

The two sides also will negotiate hours and working condi- tions for the new Academic Alternative Academy, which will offer more flexibility in hours for high school students.

They have four more meetings scheduled in May and June, including the May 20 meeting.

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