Batavia teachers will detail curriculum issues, lack of trust
BATAVIA – Teachers, staff and community members will pack tonight’s Batavia Unified School District 101 Board of Education (BOE) meeting in a unified show of support for a recommitment made by district administration and the board to partner with the Batavia Education Association (BEA) in addressing issues of eroding trust, inadequate communication and lack of authentic collaboration.
“We want to shed light on these issues, so we can work together to resolve them. The administration and the BEA crafted a joint statement committing to address these problems, but we want to make sure the community and board know what’s going on. These issues impact all our stakeholders,” BEA member Sarah Barrett said.
The BEA and District 101 administration created a joint agreement acknowledging several issues that impact students’ learning conditions and educators’ working conditions:
- Collaborative Decision-Making: Dominance of top-down approaches, particularly in School Leadership Team (SLT)/Big School Leadership Team (Big SLT) and School Improvement Plan (SIP) executions, undermining teacher input.
- Climate and Culture: Eroded trust, inconsistent application of the collective bargaining agreement and disrespect negatively impact the workplace.
- Systemic Inefficiencies: Unclear roles and responsibilities among committees like Curriculum Assessment Advisory Council (CAAC) and SLT create operational inefficiencies.
- Lack of Progress: Continuous stagnation in addressing these concerns despite efforts.
“We have been here before, pulling up our chairs to the table,” said BEA President Todd Swanson. “The pervasiveness of the lack of progress in resolving these issues and moving us all forward together has been missing. We are cautiously optimistic that this time is going to be different as we work together to ensure our working conditions allow for the best learning conditions for our students.”
Barrett added, “That’s why this joint acknowledgement of the shortcomings in the district and recommitment to moving forward together is so important.”
BEA represents 423 teachers and other certified staff like reading specialists, psychologists and counselors within Batavia School District 101. They serve the nearly 5,100 students who attend the eight schools in the district.
The District 101 BOE meeting is at 7 p.m. at Batavia High School (1201 Main St., Batavia). It will also be streamed live HERE.
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At 135,000 members strong, the Illinois Education Association (IEA) is the largest union in Illinois. The IEA represents PreK-12 teachers outside the city of Chicago and education support staff, higher education faculty and support staff, retired education employees and students preparing to become teachers, statewide.
