Published: October 21, 2006 11:25 am      

Neoga teachers file complaint as strike continues

NEOGA — Striking Neoga teachers have fired another salvo in their ongoing dispute with the Neoga Unit 3 Board of Education.

The Neoga Teachers Association announced in a news release Friday that it had filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the board with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

The teachers association’s chief negotiator Dale Will, who is also the Neoga High School agriculture teacher, said in the release that the charge results from board statements made during the most recent negotiation session last Saturday.

“The school board essentially ended negotiations prematurely on Oct. 14 when they re-issued their Sept. 23 proposal as their last, best and final offer, and then said they would not entertain any new proposals offered by us,” Will said. “We were prepared to offer counter proposals at this time, but the board wouldn’t listen to us.”

The teachers later voted overwhelmingly to reject the board’s latest offer and began a strike on Thursday. No negotiations have been scheduled, according to news release from the teachers association.

Teachers association president Brenda Jones stated in the release that the union is more than willing to meet in an effort to break the impasse.

“We’re not going to be able to solve the differences if we don’t meet,” Jones said. “We’re ready, willing and able to meet with the board as soon as possible.”

Calls to Unit 3 Superintendent Debby Poindexter were not returned Friday afternoon.

In an unrelated matter, the Unit 3 board announced in a news release that it had settled previous unfair labor practice charges filed by former special education teacher Nancy Steichmann and former substitute teacher Laura Geiger.

The board stated in the release that the settlement — which came without an admission of wrongdoing by either side — was a better solution than pursuing the case through the administrative and court systems.

“The parties believed that resolving these charges was the best thing for the community and the children in the district rather than to spend money on litigation and thereby tie up local education resources in depositions, hearings and trials,” the board said.

“We hope the community will understand our concern for the taxpayers and children and will be supportive of our decision to resolve these cases rather than continue these battles.”

Teachers association strike coordinator Mike Snyder, a resource room teacher at Neoga High School, said the cash settlement was not necessarily the most desirable outcome.

“Other alternatives were not accepted by the board,” said Snyder, who declined to say what those alternatives were.

Snyder emphasized that the Steichmann-Geiger issue was unrelated to the current labor dispute.

Bill Grimes can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 132 or bgrimes@effinghamdailynews.com