BLUE ISLAND – The Blue Island Education Association (BIEA) took a vote of no confidence in Cook County School District 130, on their Superintendent Colleen McKay, Ph.D., this afternoon. Members of the BIEA, who are teachers and licensed educators working at schools through District 130, voted and the results show teachers overwhelmingly have no confidence in McKay.
The District 130 custodians were laid off by the administration on Aug. 19. However, the administration failed to communicate a plan to ensure safe, healthy schools for all students, teachers and staff. The district is now paying an outside company to clean the schools, in addition to paying the custodians who were laid off,. However, schools are consistently dirty and unsanitary and have been since the start of the school year. Cockroaches, mold, mice and fly infestations are just some of the reported health conditions.
In September, parents kept more than 600 hundred students home from school in a protest against the unsanitary classroom conditions. Also in September, the BIEA filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Healthcare Administration (OSHA). Since then, the Blue Island mayor, Crestwood mayor, State Rep. Bob Rita and others have called on the District 130 school board and McKay to reverse course by removing the outside agency and bringing back the district’s custodians. It is now November and HES is still understaffed by at least ten custodians, and no real plan has been shared with teachers from the district to address the shortcomings.
The following statement is attributable to BIEA President Sherri Roozee-Sera:
“The results are abundantly clear. Our teachers don’t have any confidence in our district’s leadership, Dr. McKay. For months, the BIEA has tried to bring forward concerns about our student and educator building conditions with the hopes that the district and board would hear us. We’ve communicated our concerns at board meetings, in numerous e-mails, through an OSHA complaint and direct discussions with the district office. Despite all of this, no real plan has been communicated to the BIEA about how the district plans to address the unhealthy, unsanitary conditions or the continued concerns we have in regard to this issue.
Our students deserve better than this. Our teachers and staff deserve better than this. It’s clear the contracted cleaning company, HES, is not working out. We need a plan to clean up our schools and keep them clean, and we believe that starts with bringing back our custodians.”
The BIEA represents approximately 300 teachers and staff educating nearly 3,000 students who attend one of the 12 schools in District 130.
On Tues., Nov. 10, the teachers, staff and parents will be attending the District 130 Board of Education meeting. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Eisenhower Cooperative (5318 W 135th St, Crestwood).
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The 135,000 member Illinois Education Association (IEA-NEA) is the state’s largest union. IEA represents PreK-12 teachers outside the city of Chicago and education support staff, higher education faculty, retired education employees and students preparing to become teachers, statewide.
