2014

 

 

  Three-quarters of a century after it was established, LFHS has come under persistent assault.  Though the siege has dragged-on for years the participants have kept it quiet, hoping the hostilities would subside.

Well, they haven't.  And you can't win a war by denying it.  This website is a candid documentation of what the teachers' union, the LFEA, is trying to do to our high school.

I am Donald E. Russ, LFHS Class of '70.  I can be reached via deruss at msn dot com.		    

 

 

    In the Autumn of 2012, the teachers of Lake Forest High School walked away from their jobs, their students and their responsibilities to demand more money.  The school board offered them more money the previous summer, but the teachers said it wasn't enough.

The strike ended when the teachers agreed to the deal they could have had before the strike started.  From a parent's perspective, it seems to be unfocused destructiveness.  From a taxpayer's perspective, it seems to be mindless grasping.  From an outsider's perspective, it seems the only purpose of the strike was to show they could do it.
Click here for the sad story of the first-ever teachers' strike at LFHS.		  

 

 

  Click for the teacher evaluation battleground.    

 

 

    The teachers’ strike happened because the teachers wanted more money than the school board offered. The strike ended when they accepted the offer they could have had before it began. Three teachers worked during the strike and were paid. Now the union wants their pay to be taken away. Sometimes the union wants more pay for its members; sometimes less.

Click here to understand why the 2012 strike will continue until 2022.		  

 


  Click for the pension reform battleground.    

 


    The New School Day Initiative would have brought "block scheduling" to LFHS.  After months of collaborative work, a single plan was endorsed by all stakeholders:  students, parents, district taxpayers, school administration -- and a majority of the faculty.

Block scheduling involved a change of "the work day" and so had to be approved by the Negotiating Committee of the Lake Forest Education Association (LFEA) union.  The seven members of the committee could agree to it on their own authority, or they could put it to a formal vote by the membership.

They made a third choice.  They took an internal poll and found that a simple majority would approve the change, but less than two-thirds.  So they changed their rules to require two-thirds.  Then, in a naked power-play, the committee of seven announced that an insufficient number approved so they would not bother with a formal vote.

Click here for the story of their spiteful behavior.		  

 


  The direction taken by the teachers comes from two influences: The IEA (the umbrella organization, the Illinois Education Association) in the person of UniServ Director Mark Stein and the LFEA (the union local, the Lake Forest Education Association) in the body of the Negotiating Committee.

Mr. Stein is a full-time union employee; the seven members of the Negotiating Committee are LFHS teachers. The drumbeat that has our teachers goose-stepping comes from them.

Click here to know who is accountable for the destructive direction the teachers’ union has taken in recent years.		    

 

    LFEA is a misnomer. It is not an “education association” – it is a teachers’ union. It is not about education, nor the students. It is all about collective bargaining and the benefits inuring to the union members.

The LFHS teachers may spend some time during their union meetings talking about how to best prepare LFHS students for college but that is not union business, that is their LFHS job. Union business is the welfare of the teachers, not the students.

Click here to see why the LFEA has no right to exist.