Members of Addison Teachers’ Association host unity walk

The members of the Addison Teachers’ Association (ATA) are currently working without any contract. The members of the ATA and the community members will walk for showing their solidarity for their schools and students. Allison Andrikokus, the co-president of the ATA, said, “We are simply asking for average.” He added that the board must have to put the students first.

Andrikokus said that he was disheartened with the behavior of the board as it was taking too long to convince the board that their students deserved at least average. Per pupil spending by the board is lowest in DuPage County and it is far below the state average. The negotiations between the ATA and the Board of Education (BOE) of the Addison School District 4 are ongoing since February.

ATA is an association of 327 members which are teachers, psychologists, social workers, librarians, and speech pathologists. The ATA is negotiating a new contract with the BOE. Andrikokus said that the association demanded an average for the educators. There is a shortage of quality teachers in the state and if the wages will stay below the average then the shortage will go long. Andrikokus said, “If the wages are not competitive, we will continue to lose quality professionals.”

Andrikokus told that they lost 23 teachers per year in the last five years. He added that they wanted to get a fair contract for serving their students in the best manner. The unity walk and the meeting of the BOE will be held at the Addison Village Hall. The BOE meeting will start at 7:00 pm while the unity will start at 6:00 pm.

The location of the unity walk has been changed in order to accommodate a larger crowd. The address of the unity walk is 1 Friendship Plaza, Addison. The plan of the unity walkers is to pack the board meeting. The ATA members said that they would continue their struggle until they get a fair contract. A fair contract is a primary requirement for the betterment of the students and the schools, they added.