Kankakee Times

Bourbonnais Elementary District 53 teachers and staff are on strike, leaving the five schools closed since last week with no clear date for when the standoff will end.

The two parties were scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon, the Daily Journal reported, before the start of a planned union rally at 5 p.m.

The teachers opted to strike after the board, and the Bourbonnais Education Association failed to reach a contract deal, creating the stalemate.

"The mediator reached out to both parties on [last] Friday as per the plan we put in place on [last] Wednesday night," the Bourbonnais Education Association said in a March 8 statement. "When contacted by the mediator, the board team said they are not ready to make any movement in negotiations."

The strike impacts 167 teachers and other staff members and 2,400 students in the district's five schools.

While teachers are on strike, they will not get paid, the union said, the Daily Journal reported.

The last time the union approved a strike was in 1999, which lasted for five days.

"We are available every to bargain every single day," the union statement said. "We want to get back to our classrooms as soon as possible."

The board's latest publicly known offer before the Tuesday meeting was outlined on the district website.

The statement said that the board's "offer is fair and reflects its commitment to its teachers. The board's offer addresses all of the BEA's stated contract goals."

Those goals, the board said, are for competitive salary raises, step and lane structure; common plan time for teachers at all grade levels; maintaining current retirement incentives; and maintaining insurance benefits for current teachers and providing competitive benefits for new teachers.

"The board's offer also reflects its responsibility to be prudent with taxpayer money and acknowledges the financial realities of this pandemic," the board said.

The positions from which both the board and BEA are negotiating can be found on the state’s website.