District 209 Teachers have voted to strike without a fair contract in place before February 18th. We, the community, believe that in order to improve our schools, we must retain and attract quality teachers with a fair and competitive contract.

We would like board members to oversee/participate in the negotiation talks to ensure a deal can be reached to prevent a strike. A work stoppage will result in a loss of learning for our students.

We would like the district to offer a contract to D209 teachers that helps retain and attract quality educators.  This includes paying them for any increase in workload (i.e. adding extra classes or increased class size). There is nationwide teacher shortage. Teachers at D209 are some of the lowest paid HS teachers in the area and D209 has had the worst teacher retention in the area as well. 28 teachers have left D209 since June 2021! A two year contract with a zero percent raise this year, during a very challenging year, and a five percent raise next year will make D209 teachers even more dramatically underpaid compared to nearby districts. We believe recruiting quality teachers and retaining quality teachers is one of the key pieces in academic success.

We would like the board to NOT approve ANY administration hires until the teachers have a contract. Mr. Alexander states in his letter that it’s not financially responsible for the BOE to give our teachers the raise they are requesting, or hire sufficient teachers to return to an 8 period day. However the board has approved administration hires and salaries that top over 1 million dollars a month! The five year financial plan established in 2019 calls for spending under $400,000 a month on admin salaries. FIRST establish a contract to improve educational outcomes for scholars and improve teacher retention, THEN continue to exercise financial responsibility with administration hires.

If you want to invest in our students, start investing in our teachers!