Unions File Complaint Against D-205 On In-Person Learning

Elmhurst IL

07 January, 2021

3:18 PM

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ELMHURST, IL — Unions for teachers and staff in the Elmhurst schools have filed a complaint with the state. They allege the school board violated its own rules with a plan to resume in-person learning next week. On Thursday, the Elmhurst Teachers Council and the Elmhurst School Related Personnel Council released a statement about the complaint. They said the district had already disclosed that the grievance existed. In mid-November, the Elmhurst School District 205 board voted on a set of county and local metrics to establish when a hybrid of in-person and remote learning would start. A month later, the union said, the board ignored its own metrics and announced that hybrid learning would resume this Monday, regardless of the circumstances. "The board's own metrics were not satisfied in December, and they are not satisfied now," the unions said in the statement. "The data still shows a substantial rate of community spread, which poses a clear risk to the health of students, staff and their families." State law, the organizations said, is clear that school boards must negotiate matters of health and safety with unions. "By unilaterally discarding its own health metrics and choosing to expose all employees to elevated risk without bargaining in good faith, the Board of Education has failed to follow the law," the statement said. So the unions said they exercised their rights by filing a complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. The vast majority of teachers and teacher aides are opposed to a "hasty" school reopening under conditions of substantial community spread, the unions said. However, they said, the unfair labor practice complaint was filed because the board voted one way and acted another. The unions said they had no choice but to appeal the district's "illegal" action to the state labor board to preserve a "historically productive" working relationship. On Wednesday evening, the district notified parents in a mass email that the unions had filed the unfair practice charge and were seeking to delay the resumption of in-person learning. The letter was signed by the school board, which met a day earlier to discuss union negotiations behind closed doors. The board said the unions' complaint would not delay the return to in-person learning. "While we intend to vigorously defend against these charges, we have also directed D205 leadership to continue working with our staff to shore up any concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic as local health data continues to stabilize and the availability of a vaccine nears," the board said in the email. The board said it was unanimously committed to reopening classroom doors and keeping them open. The district did not have any immediate comment Thursday afternoon on the union's statement. The district has been almost entirely remote since October. Parents upset over the cancellation of in-person learning have formed a Facebook page called "Reopen D205." In August, the union repeatedly criticized the district because officials were planning to start the school year with both in-person and remote learning. The union cited the dangers of the pandemic in its opposition to in-person instruction. The district, however, ended up starting the school year with entirely remote learning, and the union stopped its criticism. The schools were only open for in-person instruction for a brief time last semester.