RIVERSIDE-BROOKFIELD Also serving North Riverside $1.00
Vol. 33, No. 16
April 18, 2018
Shot stopper RBHS goalkeeper a secret to Bulldogs’ success PAGE 15
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Riverside school to hold tuition lottery PAGE 6
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New foundation to raise funds for library PAGE 7
New 5-year deal for D95 teachers, a year early
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PACKING IT IN
3% base pay raises annually By BOB UPHUES Editor
In a bit of a surprise move, the Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 Board of Education and its teachers’ union, Teachers Association of Brookfield (TAB), have agreed on a new five-year contract a full year before its present contract was set to expire. Reached after just three negotiating sessions over the past month, the new contract includes a flat 3-percent increase in base pay for teachers for each year and tweaks a number of other areas related to compensation and benefits. “Anytime both sides walk away feeling good you’ve done right,” said Superintendent Mark Kuzniewski at the school board’s April 12 meeting where the contract was signed by both board President Michelle Maggos and TAB President Lynda Nadkarni. Kuzniewski indicated that this latest deal, which runs through June 2023, had the broad support of union members. The five-year contract ratified back in 2014 was not so popular with union members, who accepted that deal by a one-vote margin, according to Kuzniewski. Nadkarni remarked publicly at the school board meeting that the new contract reflected a sense that both the administration and teachers negotiated as partners committed to similar goals. “It’s so lovely to work in a district where the administrators, the board and the teachers and support staff have the See D95 CONTRACT page 10
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Volunteers packed 40,000 meals for the needy during a Feed Our Community event on April 14 in conjunction with the Hauser Junior High School food drive, sponsored annually by the school’s PTO. The meal packing event was a new addition to the drive, which collects tens of thousands of non-perishable food items each year for food pantries in Chicago and Riverside Township. For more photos, visit online at www.RBLandmark.com.
District 96 tweaks gifted program
Advanced learning programs in math, English made more flexible By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter
The advanced learning program in Riverside Elementary School District
96 is about to be revamped and made more flexible. A committee of 21 people, including four parents, 10 teachers, four administrators, a school psychologist, a
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consultant and school board member Shari Klyber have been examining the program for more than a year. On See D96 PROGRAM on page 10
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