The District 47 administration is facing an unfair labor practice and an arbitration after illegally hiring an outside firm to recruit temporary teachers.
CRYSTAL LAKE – The Crystal Lake School District 47 (D47) Board of Education recently approved the reduction and elimination of staffing positions for the 2025-26 school year. These include elementary and middle school building permanent substitute teachers, elementary band directors and elementary extended curriculum teachers. The news comes amidst an investigation by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) into an unfair labor practice (ULP) against D47, which spent close to $2 million to illegally hire a staffing agency in an attempt to fill open positions.
The ULP details how D47 administrators violated the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act (IELRA) and illegally retained a recruiting firm to hire temporary educators. A grievance related to the same issue is now headed to federal arbitration.
“I am concerned about the financial decisions being made. During the summer of 2024, the administration agreed to pay nearly $2 million to staffing agencies to fill open positions, with a significant portion of this money going to the agencies and not the actual staff working with our students. Now, not even a year later, the district is saying it can’t afford the positions it currently has and they need to cut and reduce positions. It doesn’t make any sense at all,” CLETA President Jenny Sanchez said.
The union learned district administrators retained four staffing agencies to fill open positions. The agencies’ current temporary employees were retained in June and July. Utilizing these firms is a direct violation of the current CLETA contract and the Illinois School Code.
“This isn’t just illegal; this practice shortchanges our students. Bringing in temporary help doesn’t solve our deeper issues. It’s just a band-aid to a larger problem. We’re in the middle of a national educator shortage due to increased demands placed on educators with insufficient support. We need to encourage educators to come to our district by offering competitive salaries, benefits and supportive workplaces,” said Sanchez.
The four staffing agencies are being paid more than $1.8 million for 13 positions. District 47 is paying as much as $276,000 per temporary position, which means the district is paying up to four times more than the CLETA average salary, which is $65,000, for doing the same work. In addition, it is worth noting that temporary employees are not part of the bargaining unit and cannot join the union.
“The district is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on outside help, money that should be being invested in our district to help us attract and retain high-quality, permanent employees,” Sanchez said. “We know our students benefit from consistency and working with the same dedicated educators year after year.”
All of this comes after the district faced similar charges from the Crystal Lake Association of Support Staff (CLASS). CLASS represents education support staff who work in District 47. CLASS filed a ULP against District 47 in the fall of 2023. In May, the IELRB announced a settlement. CLASS employees were all given immediate raises, a second raise before the start of the school year, a $2,000 payment and additional paid time off as a result of the settlement.
There are 670 educators in the CLETA bargaining unit serving the more than 7,000 students who attend District 47 schools.
The ULP hearing date is set for March 19. As for the pending arbitration, the American Arbitrator Association has assigned an official arbitrator and a hearing date is expected to be set soon.
###
The 135,000 member Illinois Education Association (IEA-NEA) is the state’s largest union. IEA represents Pre K-12 teachers outside the city of Chicago and education support staff, higher education faculty, retired education employees and students preparing to become teachers, statewide.
