They are LFHS teachers, listed in alphabetical order,
with the years of service, subject, work phone number and work email address.
They control all matters related to the collective bargaining agreement. They
called the strike and they blocked the New School Day Initiative.And yet, in spite of all the power that they wield over the 1770 students at LFHS and the LFHS annual budget of $44 million, they were difficult to identify. It seems they are reluctant to be known.
The teachers’ union at LFHS is called the LFEA, the Lake Forest Education Association. All the members of the LFEA are employees at LFHS. The LFEA is associated with the IEA, the Illinois Education Association. Mr. Mark Stein works for the IEA as a “UniServ Director” and consults to the LFEA.
So I called Mr. Stein in the early afternoon of March 11th and I asked for the leadership names at LFEA. He asked me why I wanted to know and I said that I wished to communicate with the leadership directly. He said I could email any teacher at the email addresses published by the high school. He explained that the teachers’ union is a private organization but that I could give him a message and he would forward it to the union leadership.
“Oh, like a dead-drop” I said.
“No, no” he immediately protested, recognizing that dead-drops are used primarily by blackmailers, extortionists and others who wish to remain unaccountable. I explained that I did not seek a dialog with anonymous people.
He offered to discuss issues himself, so I asked about block-scheduling. He said that the March 21st Lake Forester misquoted him when it reported that he said that this wasn’t a union issue. He said the teachers now instruct some 200 different courses and that number would be reduced with block-scheduling and that was an academic concern and that special-needs students* would be left out. He said that the administration had promised that there would be no layoff resulting from the switch, but still the teachers still rejected it for the good of the curriculum.
When I observed that the Negotiating Committee refused to allow the membership to vote on the matter, he returned to his talking points.
He also lamented the anonymous comments posted to the Patch website and credited me for using my real name when I commented. He said that he and I have some common ground – favoring the accountability that comes from owning our words and deeds.
And thus we turned full-circle, of course. The Negotiating Committee could use some of that sunlight that Mr. Stein claims to favor. So we concluded and I wrote emails that same afternoon:
