ILLINI BLUFFS TEACHERS STAND FIRM AGAINST DRUG TESTING POLICY

Illini Bluffs Posts Openings for Temporary Jobs

GLASFORD -- For the second time in the past decade, classes at Illini
Bluffs Community Unit District 327 have been canceled after talks
between the administration and the teachers union failed to produce a
new contract.

About a dozen teachers stood outside the entrance of the school
district's administrative offices Wednesday morning during what was to
be the first day of classes for students following the summer break.

"We're here to show the community we're there for them," said Keith
Brown, a high school history teacher and lead negotiator for the
Illini Bluffs Federation of Teachers union, which represents 63
full-time teachers in the rural Peoria County school district. "We
want to be in the classroom, not in the street."

The reason for the strike is a disagreement about random drug
testing.

The administration is pushing for the practice, similar to what the
support staff in the district agreed to a year ago and have been
following, and what bus drivers are mandated by law to follow. The
School Board, superintendent and principals are willing to undergo
monthly urinalysis testing, as well, said district attorney, Karl Meurlot.

The union says its members are not opposed to the measure, as long as
there's a reason.

"We don't have a problem with it, if there is cause," Brown
said.

Meurlot says a drug-related accident involving two students - one was
killed - got the School Board's attention. Teachers are "kind of role
models for students," he said.

According to the district's final offer, posted on the school
district's website, "The public has a right to expect persons employed
by the Illini Bluffs School District to be free from the effects of
drugs and alcohol . . . The Board of Education has a right to expect
its employees to report for work fit and able for duty."

The union's last offer also is posted on the website. Both proposals
detail wage and health care benefits as well as the drug testing issue.

Meanwhile, school is canceled for the remainder of the
week.

No new negotiations were scheduled as of Wednesday. The School Board
met Tuesday night, but with no agreement with the union.

Whether the teachers will be replaced in the classroom remains to be
seen.

The district posted on its website that it has "openings for Illinois
certified teachers, grades K-12, to temporarily replace teachers who
are on strike." Salary was listed at $187 per day for teachers with a
bachelor's degree and $204 per day for teachers with a master's degree.

Reaction from the community about the strike appears somewhat
mixed.

Marc Bohanan of Glasford, a member of the local carpenter's union,
said their group has been required to undergo random drug testing the
past 15 years.

"Everybody else already has to do it . . . they just need to get this
settled," Bohanan said.

Gloria Taylor of Glasford agreed, saying others at the school district
also already undergo random testing, "so I think it's equally fair."

Amber Moore of Glasford took her 5-year-old son, Nathan, to a
kindergarten orientation Tuesday.

"He's upset," Moore said Wednesday, noting she sees both sides of the
issue. "They said 'we'll see you tomorrow,' then this. It's the kids
they're hurting. I'd just rather him be in school."

Others, like Valerie Bussell, say they have not followed the most
recent issue closely but said she would just like it to be resolved.

"I hear both sides of it," Bussell said. "Every year, it's always
something. I think everybody would just like it to be resolved."

The school district neared a strike last year as well.

In 2001, a strike forced the district to cancel the first three days
of school. Talks then stalled on a variety of issues, the most notable
being a disagreement about teachers' insurance benefits.

The strike this week is the sixth since the district was formed in
1969, according to Journal Star archives. A strike by support
personnel closed down the schools for five days in 1991, when teachers
refused to cross the picket lines. In 1990, teachers went on strike
for eight days.

The district also has fallen under a negative light in recent years
from other occurrences.

In 2007, Ian McDonald, a former Illini Bluffs teacher, agreed to give
up his teacher's license and spend four years on probation for having
a months-long sexual relationship with one of his students the year
before. Also in 2007, the district agreed to pay their former
elementary school principal, John Walker, $32,000 to resign amid
allegations he assaulted a 20-year-old at a drinking party, though
Walker was later acquitted of those criminal charges.

The Illini Bluffs school district has about 1,000 students from
Glasford, Kingston Mines and Mapleton. According to the Illinois State
Board of Education, District 327 teachers were paid an average of
$42,418 last year, more than $20,000 less than the statewide average
of $63,296.