Unit 4 Updates

A couple of updates on the land deal between Unit 4 and the Champaign Park District and contract negotiations with the teachers union. From the News-Gazette yesterday:

Champaign school Board OKs deal to buy park district land for drainage
A divided Unit 4 school board signed off on an intergovernmental agreement with the Champaign Park District on Monday, checking off another item from its referendum to-do list.

The board's approval is the first step for the school district to acquire the about 1 acre of park-district-owned land it needs to build a stormwater basin north of the Centennial High School parking lot. If the park district board signs off on the deal Wednesday, Unit 4 could close on the property by Sept. 28...

In other moves:

— The school board voted — this time unanimously — to approve buying the property at 206 N. New St. for $118,000.

"This is another property that borders the Central High School site, and with the facilitation of the expansion of the Central High School campus ... the acquisition of this property is critical to the overall traffic flow and the entirety of the traffic plan around campus during the school day," Tom Lockman, the district's chief financial and legal officer, told the board.

— A construction contract for the demolition of the former Dr. Howard Elementary School received unanimous board approval.

Capital projects manager Sandra Roesler told board members that the work is expected to begin sometime in mid-September, pending the completion of hazardous-material abatement from both the school (expected to finish this week) and three homes (at 105 N. James St. and 1201 and 1203 W. Park Ave.) across the street to the west.

Full article here. Information on the Champaign Park District Board meeting tonight at 5:30pm here.

Unit 4 and the teachers union have hit a snag or two in negotiating their new contract. From today's News-Gazette:

Champaign teachers request federal mediator for contract talks with district
Unproductive negotiations between the Champaign Federation of Teachers and the Unit 4 school district have resulted in a request for federal intervention.

A five-and-a-half-hour meeting Friday between the teachers union, the Champaign school board and other district officials ended with the union requesting a federal mediator to step in, President Jen White said Tuesday.

In an emailed statement, Unit 4 spokeswoman Emily Schmit said the board agreed to the federal mediator and called discussions between the two groups "productive." She added that "only a few items remain unresolved at this point."

In addition to a general sense of stalled progress, White said the teachers' union has been concerned with various sticking points between it and the district...

Among them: White said the union would like to see class-size limitations put into place — at least for kindergartners, if not first- and second-grade classes as well. Currently, she said, the district doesn't have such restrictions.

White said the union also wanted to change some language in the contract regarding home visits from teachers. Additionally, it took issue with the district wanting to add two days to the school calendar that were for teachers only, White said, and called it a "top-down approach" from the district.

"If we're going to add days, one of them should be with students," White said, adding that the district's contract with teachers expired June 30.

In the district's statement, Schmit indicated the conflict was largely financial: Where White said the district didn't send the union a full financial proposal until Aug. 16, Unit 4 said what it did send was rejected twice by the union.

More at the full article here.