Prairie Grove District 46 Teachers Strike

Prairie Grove Teachers Union finally acted on a strike authorization vote taken in August.

The PGTA met with the District 46 bargaining team on Thursday night for more negotiations that never seem to realize an agreement between the two sides. The PGTA issued a statement at 1 a.m. Friday:

"After seven hours of negotiations tonight (Thursday), the Prairie Grove teachers will not be reporting to school on Friday, Oct. 12." 

"The teachers' negotiating team asked the Board of Education team and their attorney to continue negotiating throughout the night but they would not agree to continue to negotiate.  The next negotiation session is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Friday, Oct. 12."

This morning, the 73 members of the Prairie Grove Teachers Association are on strike. 

At about 1 a.m., District 46 posted a notice on its webpage stating that school would be closed for Friday. The notice said the Sage YMCA in Crystal Lake would offer lowcost daycare for families needing assistance.

The notice also stated the District 46 School Board had made its final offer.

"Although the board has imposed its last best and final offer, the parties have worked diligently to reach an agreement," the statement said. "The board has agreed to the union salary requests and the union request for a salary schedule. The board and the PGTA have agreed to the amount of money that the board will contribute to health insurance premiums."

"At the beginning of the session, the only issue separating the parties last night was the union demand that the board make additional payments to some individuals for deductibles in addition to paying for premium costs. Late in the session, the PGTA added several other proposals."

The statement went on to say that the board members believed an agreement could be reached quickly if the parties concentrated on the issue that was discussed at the beginning of Thursday night's session.

The board agreed, and even invited, the public to attend today's negotiation session as observers only. The session is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. in the school's multi-purpose room. 

Prairie Grove School District 46 is located at 3233 Route 176 on the far east side of Crystal Lake. It has two schools and serves about 900 students.