By Michael Kapellas
STAFF WRITER FOR COPLEY NEWSPAPERS
There are new developments in the family feud between
the administration and the faculty at Waubonsie Valley
High School, and what a recent survey says has rankled
the administration.
Carolyn Gloeckle, president of the Indian Prairie
Education Association, the district's teachers union, said
she wanted to gauge the staff's attitude, so she and a group
of teachers circulated a survey at a faculty meeting at the
end of January. The results, which were distributed to the
teachers at the beginning of February, paint a picture of
disgruntled teachers with no faith in their leadership.
Of Waubonsie's 175 teachers, 151 responded to some or
all of the survey's 13 questions.
Ninety five percent of the teachers who responded either
strongly disagreed or disagreed with the statement that the
staff morale at the school is high.
The same percentage of respondents either strongly
disagreed or disagreed with the statement that the board of
education demonstrates concern for staff morale.
Perhaps most revealing, though, were the responses to a
yes-or-no question that was a late addition to the survey.
The statement was, "I have confidence in the leadership
in
this building."
Eighty four percent of the 129 teachers who responded to
the question said "no."
"We understand very clearly that this is not a survey
that
would be characterized as reliable," said Gloeckle, who
is
in her second year as union president. "It wasn't generated
by an independent source. If someone were to say that
there was bias, they'd be right because we generated it
ourselves. But at the same time it helped us generate some
data for ourselves."
District 204 Superintendent Gail McKinzie said she heard
about the union's survey but hadn't seen the results.
"It's not something I ask for, and it's not something
they
send me," McKinzie said.
The survey results aren't as important as the work that
comes out of discussions between the union and district
representatives, McKinzie said. Both Gloeckle and
McKinzie said they have been working together recently to
come up with resolutions to the staff's variety of concerns.
"From my perspective we have confidence in the staff
and the administration that we'll be able to work out an
approach both parties can agree to," McKinzie said. "First
and foremost we have to address the issues of
supervision."
McKinzie was referring to the issue that prompted the
teachers union to file an unfair labor practices complaint
with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on
Thursday, Jan. 28.
On Jan. 19, the administration at Waubonsie Valley
assigned an additional half-period of supervision to its
teachers largely due to the number of disturbances in the
school's hallways the previous semester. The union
maintains that under its contract the half-period is set aside
for collaborative planning.
Paul Klenck, attorney for the union, said he filed on
Monday the association's position with the Illinois
Education Labor Relations Board. The District has two
weeks to submit its position, at which point the union will
get a chance to reply.
The investigator will then look at both sides and
determine whether a complaint should be issued, a process
Klenck said can take anywhere from two weeks to two
months. If a complaint is issued, a hearing usually takes
place within one or two months.
"Most of the cases are settled at some time in the
process
before a hearing," Klenck said. "Each case presents
its
own different facts. The generic issue of unilateral change
by the employer is not terribly unique.
What is unique is the level of the staff's disenchantment
at Waubonsie Valley. Gloeckle, who taught physics and
chemistry for 10 years at the high school before becoming
the union president, said she's never seen morale as low as
it is now at Waubonsie Valley.
Gloeckle said it's a credit to the teachers that the quality
of their work hasn't waned in the present work conditions.
"I think when you have issues in a building, certainly
the
highest priority and concern is maintaining quality
education for the students," Gloeckle said. "I think
our
teachers are doing that."
02/13/1999
