Officials in Naperville School District 203 are negotiating the next contract between the district and the teachers’ union, all while uncertainty remains about whether the district will pursue changes to the school day schedule through the proposed Innovative School Experience.
Contract negotiations underway
School Board President Charles Cush said negotiations are active and ongoing for a successor contract to the previous agreement, which ran for four years and expired on June 30.
The district is in talks with the Naperville Unit Education Association, or NUEA, which represents educators in the district of roughly 16,000 students from parts of Naperville, Lisle, and Woodridge. The association’s website says its mission is to “empower and advocate for each other to cultivate positive, healthy environments that value and strengthen public education.”
NUEA President Ross Berkley did not respond to requests for comment.
Supporting ‘phenomenal’ teachers
Cush said the school board recognizes the high quality of the roughly 1,160 teachers in the district, whom he said “do a phenomenal job” of teaching and supporting students. The Naperville 203 website says 85% of staff members have a master’s degree, and the district’s 23 schools are staffed to attain an overall student-to-teacher ratio of 16 to 1.
Cush said the school board aims to approve a new contract that will help ensure the same level of teaching excellence remains.
“We want to make sure that we’re able to continue to provide the best level of education for our students,” Cush said. “And our teachers obviously play a big role in that.”
Next steps toward new contract
The new school year in District 203 is scheduled to begin Aug. 14.
Since contract negotiations are ongoing, Cush said he couldn’t speculate on the terms of a new deal or a timeline for reaching agreement.
Meanwhile, the school board at a meeting in April tabled discussion of the Innovative School Experience proposal, which could change start and end times across all grade levels and allow for other changes to meet diverse student needs. During the April meeting, Cush said the district shouldn’t “make a change of this magnitude without the support of the community, as well as the teachers.”
Cush did not say what type of feedback the district has received from the teachers union about the Innovative School Experience. He said active discussion remains around the ideas within this proposal as well.
“It’s definitely a discussion topic,” he said.
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