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* Sun-Times…
A bill that would allow Chicago Public Schools principals to unionize is advancing in Springfield, though obstacles remain a year after a similar effort stalled.
Chicago principals have long complained they don’t have a voice in their working conditions or district policies, but a school administrators union has never existed in the city because state law hasn’t allowed one.
House Bill 5107 would change that, amending the Illinois School Code and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act to make principals, who are supervisors, eligible for collective bargaining exclusively in Chicago. […]
The bill, sponsored by State Rep. William Davis, D-Harvey, passed the House Labor and Commerce Committee by an 18-9 vote Wednesday to advance to the full House. A similar bill passed the House last year and made it out of a Senate committee but wasn’t called for a vote before the full Senate.
* On a related note, here’s the Chicago Crusader…
A bill that would bring equity to Chicago principals’ salaries and help CPS recruit and retain quality leadership for students has been blocked in the Illinois House of Representatives after misleading pressure from CPS lobbyists.
House Bill 5405, which was set to be called in committee today, was pulled from the agenda at the last minute after CPS lobbyists convinced leadership that the legislation would “preempt ongoing negotiations” with the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association.
“There are no ongoing negotiations, and there never were. That’s exactly why we need this state law to make sure that CPS gives school leaders fair compensation, and doesn’t undercut us behind closed doors,” said Troy LaRaviere, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. “Today’s maneuver makes it clear just how vulnerable Illinois and its leadership is to anti-union tactics from CPS, and ultimately students are hurt the most as CPS continues to lose school leaders year after year.” […]
CPS’s own data shows that one out of every two teachers is paid at a higher hourly rate than the principals who supervise them. This means that teachers who are interested in becoming assistant principals and later principals have to take a pay cut to do so while also giving up the 12 weeks off teachers have over the summer.
From Amendment 1…
(a) The salary schedule for school administrators in the school district must be set so that:
(1) the average hourly rate of pay for an assistant principal is at least 7.5% greater than the average hourly rate of a regular teacher with more than 5 years of experience; and
(2) the average hourly rate of a principal is at least 22.5% greater than the average hourly rate of an assistant principal.
* Meanwhile, this is a big stretch by Chalkbeat…
Illinois’ General Assembly is poised to be the next battleground in the fight over COVID-19 public health requirements in schools. Republican lawmakers have filed several bills about masking and vaccine mandates in schools that would limit decision-making by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the state board of education, and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
HB 4083 by Rep. Adam Niemerg, would prevent the state board of education, local school districts, and schools from requiring school staff or students to wear masks. The Parental Medical Choice Act, HB 4149, sponsored by Rep. David Welter, would prevent the state or any local government or institution from requiring a child to receive a public health service.
HB 4575, sponsored by Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, would block the state board of education from revoking or removing a school district’s recognition, a tool the state board used at the beginning of the year to pressure districts into implementing the state’s mask mandate. Removing state recognition pulls state funding from schools and blocks students from participating in events sponsored by state athletic associations.
Several House Republican legislators have also signed onto the COVID-19 Religious Exemption Act, HB 4239, also sponsored by Niemerg, which would expand the definition of “religious exemption” and offer more loopholes for those who do not want to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
It is unclear how far some of these bills will go in the legislature — some are still waiting to be assigned to committee. But the efforts have garnered considerable attention, with thousands of witness slips, and echo debates in school districts across the state and country, where COVID mitigations in schools are seeing pushback from parents and Republican lawmakers.
There’s little to nothing “unclear” about their respective fates. They’re all almost assuredly dead. The House’s committee deadline is tomorrow. Rep. Niemerg’s bills have been assigned to the House Executive Committee, where they will die. Rep. Mazzochi’s bill has no co-sponsors.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 10:53 am
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Leave it to the great State of Illinois to create a union for management.
Comment by duck duck goose Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 10:59 am
” HB 4083 by Rep. Adam Niemerg, would prevent the state board of education, local school districts, and schools from requiring school staff or students to wear masks. ”
Just in case anyone still believes he was ever being sincere in his claims of wanting local control for school districts on mask policies.
“which would expand the definition of “religious exemption””
I look forward to the ways this will backfire on him, with a statue of Baphomet somehow becoming involved.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 11:10 am
Many levels of CPD and CFD management are union.
I am not saying it is correct, it always befuddled me, but they are.
Comment by James the Intolerant Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 11:10 am
==Leave it to the great State of Illinois to create a union for management.==
Hasn’t that happened before? When Blago and Quinn gave management the shaft most of their administrations and denied them raises and threatened to lay them off? Many of them joined AFSCME and other state unions as a result? Then Quinn signed the legislation to kick management titles out of the union (ca. 2011).
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 11:17 am
==the average hourly rate of a regular teacher==
Does CPS administration work the entire calendar year or something less? Because CPS has multiple academic calendars of varying lengths.
The legislation states “The school administrator salary schedule shall be set so that whenever pay increases occur for teachers, school administrators shall receive the same percentage increase in salary as those teachers.” So they’re piggybacking off of CTU?
Comment by City Zen Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 11:28 am
== (2) the average hourly rate of a principal is at least 22.5% greater than the average hourly rate of an assistant principal. ==
That seems a bit much, at least when I was a kid it struck me that the assistant principals had the harder jobs.
Comment by OneMan Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 11:39 am
Glad to hear the poor underpaid school administrators will make out like bandits.
Comment by Furtive Look Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 11:45 am
I am starting to believe that the public education experiment is approaching failure.
Comment by Blue Dog Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 11:54 am
==I am starting to believe that the public education experiment is approaching failure. ==
Man, ya’ll really don’t like unions.
Comment by Arsenal Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 12:08 pm
=I am starting to believe that the public education experiment is approaching failure.=
Says the guy who supposedly bemoans the loss of union jobs because Oreos are being made in Mexico.
Or is it that you only dislike some unions?
Comment by Pundent Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 12:16 pm
School Principals are not only management, they are the top manager at the actual individual school building level.
Under the umbrella of truly bad ideas, we have a new leader in the clubhouse.
Comment by Say What? Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 12:23 pm
=== they are the top manager at the actual individual school building level===
From the linked story: Illinois distinguishes a supervisor from a higher-level manager — and the bill would define a manager for these purposes as someone with a “significant role in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements or who formulates and determines employer-wide management policies and practices.”
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 12:26 pm
=That seems a bit much, at least when I was a kid it struck me that the assistant principals had the harder jobs.=
The child’s perspective is exactly that.
Typically, and I base this on my years in the private sector as well as public, the more responsibility a position the greater the pay. The same is true with education and experience hence the reason for higher pay for the higher position. As someone who has been a asst principal and principal, I can tell you the principal position was more challenging because you deal with more adults. Kids are the easy part of public education.
=Man, ya’ll really don’t like unions.=
That is probably true but he is also correct thanks to the weaponization of the crzy fringe by the GOP. People are destroying public education, the last element of true democracy and the great equalizer in our society. These folks are unwittingly condemning future generations of middle and working class kids to ignorance. All to carry a culture war flag for the economic elite.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 12:32 pm
my fear for public education has nothing to do with unionization. rather the idiotic manner in which we pay for it. property taxes.
Comment by Blue Dog Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 12:36 pm
Working in private sector in an office that was covered by a teamster contract, I was amazed that the non union supervisors and managers made less then the bargaining units. Why, paid overtime, raises based on longevity, fixed bonuses paid based on longevity. However, the non union supervisors and managers received more flexible hours and comp time and raises and bonuses were based on work not longevity. If you were at work to max money, you stayed in the bargaining unit.
It is hard enough to get rid of bad teachers under a cba, so if you allow principals to be under a cba, can you realize how hard it will be to reassign or get rid of bad ones, just one example not to allow them rights. Go back being a teacher if they dislike the pay of being a principal.
Comment by snowman61 Thursday, Feb 17, 22 @ 1:14 pm