The District 202 Board of Education has begun contract negotiations with the Knoxville Education Association teachers’ union.
At last night’s Knoxville School Board meeting, Superintendent Steve Wilder said negotiations began last Wednesday. He told WGIL the board hopes to agree to a contract as early as next month.
“From the board’s perspective, I think it was good to get it started at this point in the school year with the goal of having it done before the end of the school year,” he said.
Following a closed session where the board discussed last week’s negotiations, Wilder said there were no updates available.
In other news, the board approved renewing the district’s yearly membership in the Illinois High School Association. Wilder says the IHSA offers benefits that impact Knoxville High School activities, including sports and scholastic.
“It’s nice to have their leadership as a governing body,” he said. “There’s a board of directors, so any time there’s a rules change, that goes through the board of directors. They give oversight to any eligibility issues. They take care of running all the state series events, regional/sectional/state series.”
IHSA membership is free.
The board also discussed membership with the Illinois Elementary School Association, which offers similar services to the IHSA, but for a per-activity fee. No IESA action was taken.
Before heading into closed session, Wilder said the board was invited to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Love’s Travel Stop & Country Store scheduled for 10:30 a.m. April 19.
