Gloria Hicks has five grandchildren in the East St. Louis School District 189, and she said they’ve all been spending lots of time with her since the teachers went on strike on Oct. 1. Her grandchildren have now missed six days of school, and there’s no end in sight.
“We’ve been discussing why the teachers are on strike and the reason why we are going to support them,” said Hicks, standing on the parking lot of the district’s administration building, 1005 State St., with her grandchildren.
Parents, grandparents and students gathered at the district’s administration building today (October 8) to rally behind their teachers, who are demanding a better pay scale.
“I would like for the board to meet the teachers’ demands, and the teachers to go back to school,” Hicks said. “The teachers work extra hard; they go above and beyond. Their demands are not unreasonable.”
Negotiations between the district and the East St. Louis Federation of Teachers, Local 1220, stalled on Monday, Oct. 5, when union representatives presented their most recent proposal. The district shot it down.
The crux of the disagreement is the pay scale. Teachers used to have a salary schedule that took 11 steps – or about 11 years – to reach the maximum salary. The district has been in financial distress for many years, and pay freezes have been in place since 2012. On Sept. 29, the district agreed to a “tentative agreement” that would give the teachers raises again but at half the rate – meaning it would take twice as long for teachers to reach the maximum salary.
Dave Comerford, of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said the teachers would have been agreeing to “the equivalent to a career-long pay cut.”
The Local 1220 members rejected the agreement that night and prepared to strike on Oct. 1.
Union members said the agreement was unacceptable and that the district did not provided documentation showing that they can’t financially meet their demands.
However, in a fact sheet posted on the district’s website today, the district states that all of the contract proposals presented so far will put them in the red by fiscal year 2019. However, the tentative agreement would put their “estimated ending cash balance” at a negative $15.4 million by 2019. In comparison, the union’s Oct. 5 proposal would put them at a negative $25.9 million, according to the district.
With her grandchildren in tow, Lucille Robinson attended the rally, which was held from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. today. Rally attendees lined the sidewalk in front administration building holdings signs, cheering as cars honked in support, and even dancing to some old-school jams.
“Our children need our teachers badly,” she said. “I would like to see our teachers get a contract and something that’s satisfactory to them – and for them to get back into class as soon possible, like ASAP, yesterday.”
Robinson’s granddaughter Aunasia Nichols is in fifth grade. Nichols said she has been spending the past six days searching the web for things that will help in her career.
“I want to grow up to be a successful woman,” she said. “I want to be a scientist. Scientists are trying to develop a cure for cancer, so hopefully by the time I grow up I can actually help if they don’t already have it ready.”
East St. Louis High School juniors Jayla Massey and Dominique Simmons attended the rally to support the teachers.
“We need an education,” Massey said. “And teachers need their jobs.”
Massey said the strike has particularly been hard on the seniors.
“The fact that the seniors might have to push back their graduation, their prom,” she said. “The football players can’t play their season. It’s basically over with. It’s a lot that we are missing out on. Our Homecoming everything.”
The Homecoming spirit week that was set for this week has been cancelled, and Saturday’s dance has been postponed until November.
“I feel like when the district or the board made their decision, they didn’t consider us,” Simmons said. “I miss school.”
Follow this reporter on Twitter @rebeccarivas.
