Niles Township High School North - Saga Yearbook (Skokie, IL)

Page 22 text:

No settlement had been reached between the teachers' union and the board despite the six- month-long negotiation. On Monday, September 30th, teachers in the union pick up On Strike signs and hit the picket lines. The strike meant an extra one-week long vacation for all the students in the district. Curious students, however, come back to school and chat with their teachers. All teachers in the union were required to join the picket lines despite the cold and rainy weather during the week of walkout. Mr. Weber, being no exception, arrives in the morning and waits for the latest news on the progress of the negotiation. The sign said it all! Mr. Kokrda, along with Mrs. Barstow, was among the 200 teachers who hit the picket lines. 18 — Student Life

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Effort Pays Off in the End Throughout the years at Niles North, homework had been as common as apple pie. Teachers assigned students to write papers, do reports, or build DNA struc- tures to help students, not burden them. Students were seen doing homework in AAA, the cafeteria, or even during the period that the assignment is due. Stu- dents could be spotted doing homework in resource rooms where there were teachers who were trained to help the student better understand the assign- ment. Other students spent time in the Learning Materials Center, researching papers and reports. After the last bell to end the school day, students went home to start the grueling task of the homework assignment. Some students spent two to three hours on homework each evening. Homework consisted not only of writing papers, but also studying for upcoming tests. The final cram session occured during the last week of the semester when the stu- dent demonstrated what he had learned through many hours of homework on the final exam. Many students chose art classes as an elective. Lainie Feldstein and Mary O'Malley work on their projects in Graphic Design. Lectures were part of daily class routines. Mike Hann and Bruce Goldstone listen to the teacher's explanation before beginning an experiment. Homework

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ON STRIKE Salary Is Not The Only Issue One might have noticed that the morning rush hours on September 30, 1985 was unusual in some ways. Traffic throughout the streets in Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, and Glenview was lightened by fewer yellow school buses. On that day, students woke up after 8:00 a.m. without worrying being tardy. It was the first day of a eight-day walkout by the Niles Township teachers' union and education-support personnel. For the third time in the past nine years, the Niles Township Federation of Teachers hit the picket lines. Although the board and the teachers' union had agreed on some issues six months before the first day of school, not one of the six major issues, as named by the teachers, had been settled. Those issues were job security, salary, fair share, supervision, curriculum council, and Educational Issue Committee. Salary increases were not the only major issue. The thing that aggravates us most, Mr. Miya said, is that we get the implication that the board really isn't interested in the kind of contribution we would like to make to the district in school planning and programming. We thought maybe there were some things that we would be changing for good. According to the administrators, however, the strike was neither caused by the board nor the union. There is no winner in the strike. Both parties were not being able to communciate effectively to each other. The decision to call on strike was made by the union, Mr. Giles commented, and I think people have the right to do it, but there was no need for the strike. The eight-day long strike was finally over when arbitrators were brought in between the two parties. - Jamie Kwan The strike issue was a concern to the communities as well as to the state. Chuck Burdeen, a state official from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, expresses his concern on the issue. How the negotiation was doing was the main topic in the discussion. Mr. Herbst. as the president of the teachers' union, tells the latest news from the negotiation. The chilly weather would make anyone who was standing outside to call for a warm cup of coffee. Mr. Grossman, talking to Mr. McCarrell. warms up with coffee. Strike — 19