‘Respect our profession’: District 205 teachers union pushes for empowerment and new contract

Meeting date

May 10, 2023

Thornton Township High Schools District 205 Board Attendance

President Nina Graham—Present

Vice President Valmetta Vasser-Moody—Present

Member Kara Davis—Present

Member Stanley Brown—Present

Member Stafford Owens—Present

Member Bernadette Lawrence—Present

Member Ray Banks—Absent

Teacher appreciation week in the south suburbs included a call to “respect our profession” as the union representing 205 teachers are pushing for a new contract.

That was the call issued by Dwayne Bearden, President of the Faculty Association of District 205, representing teachers, counselors, and paraprofessional staff at Thornton, Thornwood, and Thornridge.

He was surrounded by a sea of red t-shirts—”UNION STRONG,” they read. The signs just as pointed: “United for Students,” “OUR KIDS, OUR UNION, OUR FUTURE,” ”communication and compromise is key.”

Bearden issued a plea for collaboration and support from administrative officials during public comment that did not mention current negotiations. During remote and in-person learning challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, members “stepped up” to “put in long and late days to ensure instruction, sports, [and] activities were running,” he said. 

“The District mission is to develop productive citizens who are enrolled, enlisted, or employed at high school completion. In order for us to achieve the three E’s,” Bearden said, “we need the district to provide us with an additional E. We need the district to empower the faculty association members to meet our students’ needs,” Bearden went on, calling for “necessary resources, training, support, and direction” from administrative officials.

According to Bearden, the union’s current contract includes language that allows designated time during the board meetings to speak, but the board isn’t allowing members to. There have been six bargaining meetings to date, but still no terms have been reached. FA205 provided its counterproposal to the board last month.

The meeting was the first for newly elected board members Stafford Owens, a Thornwood athletic coach and former Thornton Township trustee, and Kara Davis, a primary care physician at the University of Chicago Medicine in South Holland. The two replaced Albert Butler and Annette Whittington.

But it seems the new board members will adjust to longstanding challenges like contract negotiations. Youth mental health, teacher burnout, a return of credit recovery programs like “Boost,” and enhanced after-school support services were other topics teachers addressed during the public comment.

The “Boost” program coordinator pleaded for the program’s return, in addition to an in-person summer school program to improve students’ math and reading skills. One Thornwood teacher said students want to start a mental health club to support one another. 

Anthony Etheridge, former Thornton history teacher who resigned midway through the 2022 academic year, spoke as a “community member and a relative who believes in academic excellence.” 

“I’m not held back, anymore,” Etheridge said, alluding to FA205’s unsettled quest for a new contract. His son David Etheridge, a Thornton math teacher, also spoke that evening.

All the while, Thornridge principal Justin Moore denied claims that he slept through the school’s half-cap ceremony, which celebrates students who have neared completion of their sophomore year. While he acknowledged a photo of himself during the ceremony appearing to sit onstage with his eyes closed, Moore told the HWH claims he dozed off were false. 

Moore said he was listening to a speaker from the district’s PEACE Center, which serves as an alternative placement program, leveraging restorative justice principles, self-love, and wraparound services. 

His head was low, Moore said, but his eyes weren’t closed and that he has poor eyesight. “I knew it was going around, but I didn’t fall asleep at no half-cap ceremony,” he said. “I don’t go to sleep at events. I’m not a narcoleptic,” he said.