Good evening everyone, my name is Nikki Olszewski. I am a math teacher at Libertyville High School, and I am serving as the Treasurer of the D128 Federation of Teachers. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. Tonight I would like to talk about two major union member concerns, and I would like to clarify our Union stance on the proposed calendar.
Let me begin with letting you know that we sent a survey to our members asking for the most pressing matters that they wanted me to convey to you tonight. One issue that frequently came up in the responses is the rapid and demanding changes that are being asked of teachers in the very near future. In the time span of one year, we are being asked to rewrite and align curriculum, grading, and assessment procedures. There are attendance policy changes, accelerated placement law mandates, AP and accelerated curriculum push for students through the EOS program, co-teaching restructuring, and heterogenous classes on the horizon. All of these changes mean a shift in teaching strategies that requires time and careful planning in order to best implement these changes. Many teachers reported that the district’s push of multiple initiatives is directly affecting their mental health and well being in a negative way.
Teachers are reporting that they are feeling overwhelmed and under prepared for the mass undertaking of all these initiatives at once. We are being pulled out of our classrooms and away from our students several times a month for district-mandated training in order to try to prepare for these changes. In many instances, we were not asked to join these training sessions or committees, but rather told we needed to be a part of them. Many staff members have reported frustrations and anxiety at being required to spend time away from their class, preparing for subs, and adjusting curriculum, only to come back from the training and meetings with no strategies to help. In some training instances, teachers are confused and feel as though they are being misled about what the training is even trying to accomplish. One such example is teachers who have been told they are going to sessions led by Mr. Tony Frontier to help them with their upcoming heterogeneous classes, but the only thing being discussed over several meetings is aligning standards.
While we understand that the district has little control over the state-mandated initiatives, the administration DOES have control of the district initiatives and timelines. Why not spread these district initiatives out over the course of several years so that we can be better prepared to tackle these shifts? The district has placed an impossible task on the teachers who are trying to juggle their daily workload in addition to all the extra preparation for these initiatives. We fear that without narrowing our focus, slowing down the district initiative timelines, and strategizing in a productive way, even the best initiatives will fall flat.
This brings me to the second major concern that came out of our survey: the Equal Opportunity Schools, or EOS, initiative for the AP and accelerated classes push for our students. Our school has always been a successful school in which we have an abundance of students in our AP and accelerated classes. In fact, even the EOS presenter said at our fall institute day that they usually don’t work with districts such as ours because our program is already strong. Yet through the roll out of the EOS program in District 128 we are pushing for more enrollment in these courses. Why use the EOS program when the Accelerated Placement Act and heterogenous classes will already give students the opportunity to take more rigorous classes? Why does the EOS program feel like we are trying to push more kids into college level courses rather than giving them options for different paths? Isn’t one of our district strategic plans multiple pathways? And yet, we have not received communication about how we are promoting those options for students. All we have heard about is AP, Honors and Dual credit.
Teacher concern was also voiced through the trusted adult component of the EOS program. Through the student EOS survey, students were required to list trusted adults in the building. In turn, teachers have been asked by the administration to follow up with the students who listed them as a trusted adult in order to talk them into taking more rigorous classes. Many teachers feel like this is abusing their status as trusted adults to these students. In addition, they don’t have the expertise to advise students to take accelerated classes outside of the content area they teach. Why not trust teachers in their subject matter to recognize a student who could benefit from a more rigorous class?
This brings me to my final point tonight. As stated before, part of the reason we wanted space to talk at the board meetings is to be a voice for our Union members. However, another reason I stand here is to clarify misrepresentations of Union support. One such misrepresentation occurred at the November 6th board meeting while Dr. Herrmann was discussing the Union stance on the proposed calendar. When asked by the Board if there was Union support for the proposed calendar Dr. Hermann said, “The calendar has been brought to the Labor-Management Committee who understands the legal thresholds and was in support in concept.” After reviewing the notes from that Labor Management Committee meeting that was referenced by Denise, we would like to clarify that the attending Union executive board members specifically stated that they would not take a stance on the calendar. While they understood the administration’s intentions regarding the changes to the calendar, we view our job as negotiating the impact of such a decision on our members. We have requested that the administration provide a draft of the expectations of teachers and staff due to the proposed calendar changes but still have not reviewed that document. We look forward to doing so.
To conclude, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be the voice of our union at this meeting. Tonight we ask you to question administration as they overload our teachers with district initiatives in an unreasonable time span. We ask you to question whether the consultants hired by the district are in fact preparing our teachers for the many changes in the future. We ask you to question the EOS program and the necessity for such a program in our school. Lastly, we want to thank you for reflecting and discussing ways in which we can work together as stakeholders to maintain our district of excellence and the best possible path moving towards the future.