A settlement has been reached between striking teachers in the Huntley area and the Consolidated District 158 school board, the district announced this morning. Classes are expected to resume Thursday.
The tentative agreement was reached at 6:30 a.m., ending a walkout that began Monday.
"Both sides feel they accomplished goals that are fair to the community and the teachers," the district and the Huntley Education Association said in a joint statement.
Negotiators met Tuesday night with federal mediators to try to resolve the walkout that canceled classes for 8,200 students in kindergarten through high school in Huntley, Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Union and
The walkout also forced
On Tuesday, high school math teacher Kris Grabner, a boys soccer coach, said he would prefer to be teaching and coaching but thought striking would help the district retain and attract quality teachers.
"If we're striking, we can't play any of the games," Grabner said at a teachers rally outside the district's headquarters in Algonquin. "I hate it because the kids work so hard for it."
About 300 teachers marched outside the administrative offices to protest an order from the school board for teachers to pay their health insurance premiums by Tuesday or lose their coverage. The district typically deducts the premiums from teachers' paychecks.
Salary and retirement benefits were the issues that had held up an agreement, parties said.
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