The Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010 requires all schools in Illinois to change how teacher performance is measured by designing and implementing performance evaluation systems that assess teacher professional skills as well as incorporating measures of student growth.

http://www.isbe.net/peac/

Appendix E of the current contract (2012-2016) establishes the current evaluation plan.

http://lfhs.pxxq.com/contract/22.htm

A memorandum of agreement to that same contract provides:

The Board and the LFEA are interested in exploring an alternative evaluation system.

During the term of this agreement, the Association will collaborate with the Board to develop an alternative evaluation option to our present evaluation plan. Both parties acknowledge that the mutually agreed upon alternative evaluation option must be approved through the waiver process of the Illinois School Code as stipulated by the State of Illinois.

http://lfhs.pxxq.com/contract/24.htm

The present and future residents of District 115 and the present and future teachers of District 115 have a shared interest in teacher performance. Accordingly the LFHS School Board and the LFEA Negotiating Committee have a shared interest in teacher evaluations.

But their interests are not congruent. The LFHS Board is first concerned with the students while the LFEA Negotiating Committee is first concerned with the teachers. And so the LFHS Board is interested in identifying bad teachers and then fixing or removing them. The LFEA Negotiating Committee is interested in preventing them from being identified, fixed or removed.

IF the LFEA Negotiating Committee were to abandon its members, its failure would be no greater than if the LFHS Board were to abandon its students. But make no mistake: When the LFHS Board and the LFEA Negotiating Committee say the same things about the care of our students, only one is speaking from a vested interest.