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Votes at a glance: Oak Park ESD 97 board actions on collective bargaining, raises, gifts policy and program funding — March 18, 2025
Summary
The District 97 board approved a tentative teachers’ agreement, retroactive administrator salary increases, raised the board approval threshold for gifts, approved CAST summer funding and authorized additional staffing for Access to Algebra.
At its March 18 meeting the Oak Park ESD 97 Board of Education recorded multiple formal actions. The votes below summarize motions, recorded roll‑call results where available, and next steps.
1) Tentative agreement with Oak Park Teachers Association - Motion: Approve the tentative agreement with the Oak Park Teachers Association. - Vote: Motion carried (roll call recorded: Moore — yes; Scurlock/Sperla — yes; Kim — yes; Burns — yes; others listed as absent). The board noted it had been six years since the last full contract negotiation and thanked negotiating teams.
2) Administrator salary increase (retroactive) - Motion: Approve a 3.4% increase for district administrators, retroactive to 07/01/2024. - Vote: Motion carried (roll call recorded: Moore — yes; Sperla — yes; Kim — yes; Burns — yes; Carney absent; Herb Johnson absent). Implementation to align with payroll and fiscal reporting.
3) Donation/gift policy threshold increase (Board policy 8.8) - Motion: Increase the threshold value of gifts that require board approval from $500 to $5,000. - Vote: Motion carried (roll‑call recorded in meeting; multiple yes votes recorded). Staff indicated they will update procedures and communicate the change.
4) CAST 2025 summer programming funding - Motion: Approve the 2025 CAST summer program as presented, not to exceed $59,375. - Vote: Motion carried (roll call contained yea and nay votes; motion passed). Staff will deliver a full line‑item budget at a future meeting.
5) Access to Algebra — additional staffing - Motion: Approve additional staffing for the district’s Access to Algebra program (three additional staff requested). - Vote: Motion carried (roll call recorded with mixed yes/no votes; motion passed). Administrators will proceed with hiring and report on implementation.
Notes on voting and process: Some roll‑call names in the audio record were abbreviated or variable; the board minutes should be consulted for the official typed roll call. Where staff requested more time to provide supporting documentation (for example, CAST budget breakdown), board members asked for that documentation to arrive before final implementation steps.
Ending: Staff will align contract and salary changes with payroll and financial reporting cycles and return with requested budget detail and implementation updates at subsequent meetings.
