NUEA and District Tentative Agreement
The Naperville Unit Education Association (NUEA) and Naperville School District 203 have reached a tentative agreement following today’s mediation session.
NUEA and District 203 have been in negotiations for a multi-year contract since January. An independent federal mediator was brought in last month to help both sides reach an agreement. The two main issues that had been preventing an agreement were salary and FMLA.
“All we want is the ability to use the maximum amount of our 12 weeks of our FMLA time, using our accumulated sick days with a newborn or newly adopted child,” said NUEA President Dan Iverson at a rally the teachers union held on August 17. Before today’s mediation session, an agreement on family leave had been made.
One point of discussion today was negotiating compensation. When asked about being able to solve the issue of salary, Iverson said “obviously when you’re negotiating not everyone [gets] what they want,” but today’s session was “a good step.”
“I think speaking for us, we leave feeling good about what we were able to accomplish,” said Iverson.
What’s Next?
Both NUEA members and the District 203 school board have to formally approve the tentative agreement. Iverson said that will take place over the next couple of weeks.
“Additional information regarding the agreement will be shared pending ratification by the NUEA membership and approval by the board of education,” said District 203 in a joint statement with NUEA. “We thank everyone for their hard work and dedication during this process.”
Ahead of today’s mediation session, District 203 teachers participated in a walk in at their respective schools. NUEA, which represents 1,500 District 203 educators, had filed an intent to strike. It was possible they would do so as early as August 25.
“That’s obviously not something we’re considering at the moment,” said Iverson.
After months of negotiations, the hope is to continue moving forward.
“We just very much appreciate the hard work that of course our team but also the district’s team did to make this happen and so this was a real positive development for sure,” said Iverson.
Naperville News 17’s Aysha Ashley Househ reports.
