HEA Breaks Promise; Strike to Start Monday

Bongo guesses that many humans almost fell off the couch last night at 9:30 when they got "the call."

If you're a parent, you know what I mean... The automated call from Dr. Burkey that explained that parents should make arrangements for their kids for Monday and beyond because the HEA had issued formal notification that a strike would begin on Monday the 15th.

Here's the text of the call:

Regretfully, the District was given notice this evening by the HEA (the union that represents District 158 Teachers) that they will begin a strike on Monday, September 15 if a tentative agreement is not reached on a contract by Sunday, September 14. If the HEA strikes, there will not be school on Monday. It is prudent to plan arrangements for your children for Monday, and possibly beyond, if the teachers begin a strike. Unfortunately, we cannot provide definite notice any earlier than Sunday evening about the status of school being in session on Monday. We will have an update on the District 158 homepage, as well as notification through the Instant Alert System, by 6:00 pm on Sunday to advise parents and the community with an update. We deeply regret any negative impact this situation has on your lives. Sincerely, Dr. John D. Burkey, Superintendent

Now wait a minute and hold the phone. Bongo is not a happy hound today.

What is it about HEA presidents and their inability to tell the truth? First it was Christy Henderson and her inability to tell the truth about her secret e-mails with Larry Snow. Now it’s Julie Hunter and her inability to tell the truth about the HEA’s true intentions regarding when they would strike.

Twice in recent weeks HEA President Julie Hunter was quoted as saying that as long as the board of education was willing to negotiate there would not be a strike.

On Tuesday, August 26, she said this in the Northwest Herald: “As long as the board continues to negotiate with us, we will be in school.”

Then two days later, she is quoted in a different story making the same comment: “As long as the board continues to negotiate with us, we will be in school.”

Bongo has learned that on Wednesday night the board of education met and signed off on several items related to the contract. It was a closed meeting, so Bongo does not know exactly what the items were. But in a press release that was delivered to the HEA co-presidents on Wednesday during the day, Dr. Burkey told HEA co-presidents Julie Hunter and Kim Aschenbach that they could expect to receive a list of items the board had tentatively agreed to on Thursday. The items included several concessions made on the part of the board that went in the teachers’ favor.

So Hunter and Aschenbach knew the board had made some real movement with regard to settling the contract on Wednesday. Hmmm. Sounds like the board is negotiating, doesn't it?

Yet at Thursday’s Building and Finance Committee meeting, the board received the HEA’s formal notification that a strike would begin on Monday, September 15 unless an agreement is reached this Sunday. So much for agreeing not to strike as long as the board was willing to negotiate.

Here is today's Daily Herald story about the strike.

Here is today's Northwest Herald story about the strike. (Note to teachers... the next time the HEA wants you to flood the NWH blog with comments in support of yourselves, you might want to wait more than an hour after the meeting since no one from the general public knew what was planned and not many people from the general public read the NWH on line at 8:00 at night.)

Here is the text of the notification letter:

“This letter is to formally notify the Board of Education that without a tentative agreement, the Huntley Education Association will be going on strike Monday, September 15, 2008. We hope to reach a tentative agreement with the Board by Sunday, September 14, 2008.”

Bongo watched the video of the meeting on Thursday and was (not so) surprised that the room full of teachers left the room just as a discussion of the budget was set to begin. Bongo was (not so) surprised that the teachers were not interested in listening to a discussion about the budget and how tight it is for next year. After all, its hard to accuse the board of hoarding money when there's no money for contingencies/emergencies built into next year's budget because it's so tight.

As that budget discussion unfolded, teachers could be overheard in the hallway or outside shouting, “strike, strike, strike.” It was a less than classy display from a less than classy group.