12 hours of talks yield little in Dist. 211 contract negotiations

Frustration emerged Monday night after about 12 hours of salary bargaining failed to yield a settlement between teachers and Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211.

The sides are scheduled to reconvene 6:30 p.m. today at the district's Palatine headquarters in an effort to reach a settlement before Thursday's union-imposed strike date.

As negotiations grew more cumbersome during Monday's latter hours, the parties broke from the board room around 8:45 p.m. as suggested by the federal mediator presiding over talks.

The union provided the wrinkle Monday, as its bargaining team presented the district with a proposal for a two-year extension that would expire in July 2009. The current deal, the final of a three-year pace, expires in July.

The union previously remained focused solely on negotiating the base-salary increases for the 2007-08 school year. Thus, the multiyear offer represents a significant compromise, but it wasn't enthusiastically received by district administrators, said union spokesman Dave Comerford. The district has seemingly drawn a line in the sand, asking teachers to take a multiyear deal with more money, or to only renegotiate 2007-08 for less money, Comerford said.

"If that's what it takes to get it done, we thought that we'd put a two-year proposal out there and see if we can get something moving," Comerford said. "But nothing was moving on their end, so it's difficult."

Union President John Braglia chose not to comment. He has minted Comerford as spokesman for the duration of negotiations. Comerford works out of the Illinois Federation of Teachers office in Springfield.

Superintendent Roger Thornton said he wasn't surprised by the union's two-year offer, and warned there was still "quite a distance to go."

"Progress is difficult, but progress has been made," Thornton said. "A lot of proposals have been exchanged, primarily focused on a two-year agreement."

Neither side would comment on how much of a salary raise the two-year offer included. Thornton's mantra throughout negotiations has been to keep salary "within the parameters established by the board of education." That has meant keeping salaries within the projected rate of inflation, which hovers around 2.5 percent.

The union leadership says it will present the district's final offer to its 1,400 members Wednesday night for a vote.

If the union rejects that offer, they would strike the next day. It would be the first teacher strike in District 211 history. The strike would affect the state's largest district of 13,000 students and 2,100 employees.

Though it wasn't discussed with the union on Monday, Thornton maintains the three-year offer the district presented in August is best. He said it gives the most stability, including keeping the district's current health insurance system intact. The three-year deal also offers teachers more money, he said.

"The two-year does that better than the one-year, but the better of the offers remains the three-year," Thornton said.

Teachers have complained about new health insurance plans, saying an increased co-payment has eaten up any kind of salary raises, including step increases for experience and education level. Previously they haven't had to contribute to a health insurance plan.

The teachers had asked for one-time 3.8 percent increase for 2007-08. Comerford again said teachers would only accept a multiyear deal if the contract improved more than salary, including reducing classroom size and offering better health insurance.

"On that particular issue there was no movement from the other side what-so-ever," Comerford said.

The district's last offer it made public was a one-year deal with a 2.5 percent base increase. A three-year deal was also on the table, the union officials asked that offer to be withdrawn. That included a 3.4 percent increase the first year of the deal, and then 2.6 percent raises for the next two.

Braglia has expressed optimism earlier in the day, but that apparently was washed away as the sunset Monday, hours after talks began at 8 a.m.