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Tentative agreement reached Kishwaukee College union to vote on new pact during meeting today By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com MALTA – Negotiators from Kishwaukee College and its faculty union reached a tentative agreement Monday, days ahead of the faculty’s planned strike Wednesday. The 81-member Kishwaukee College Education Association, which represents full-time faculty members, will vote on the new pact during a meeting at 2:30 p.m. today. The two sides declined to release details of the proposed contract until after the agreement was ratified by union members. Union president and math teacher Matt Read said the two approvals still are “two major hurdles” toward a final agreement. “We’re being optimistic as we’re waiting for things to be presented and addressed,” Read said. If ratified by the union, the agreement will be presented to the Board of Trustees at an open meeting, which will be scheduled at a later date after a public notice. “I can’t tell you we’d even support it until I see it,” board Chairman Bob Johnson said. “We’re cautiously optimistic, but on Aug. 11 we had an agreement and it took them seven weeks to turn it down. “We’re going to sit on the sidelines to see if the members will support this agreement. One step at a time.” Negotiations began at 10 a.m. Monday and lasted all day on campus, which was closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The meeting originally was planned for Wednesday evening, the next available day for the federal mediator who has overseen the negotiations thus far. However, the mediator and both sides bumped the meeting up to Monday. For 10 months, the union and college officials have been in contract negotiations. The
faculty’s previous contract expired in August. Pay and benefits for educators have been a key point in the negotiations. The average full-time faculty member at Kishwaukee College earned $57,354 last year, about $14,000 less than the average community college faculty salary of $71,153, according to a recent report issued by the Illinois Community College Board. The college’s last best offer, proposed last month, included an average 4.1 percent annual increase for four years, coupled with increasing employee contributions to single health coverage by $430 a year, although single-plus-one and family health coverage rates would decrease. The college also has proposed reducing the number of years for which it provides health benefits for retirees, from 10 years to between five and seven. Union representatives complained that those givebacks all but negated the raises the college was offering. There are 81 unionized teachers and 161 nonunion adjunct teachers. The planned strike would – and still could – cancel classes for about 3,500 full- and part-time students at Kishwaukee College. Andria Mitchell, an adjunct education teacher, said she was happy about the progress. “I hope that the administration does what’s best for the students,” she said. “The focus of both sides should be serving the students, and I hope this tentative agreement makes that happen.” While negotiations took place Monday, about 25 faculty members rallied outside the building to show their support for the union, which the Illinois Federation of Teachers is representing during the negotiations. About 11:30 a.m., the faculty
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Gladys Sanchez sits with her son Buddy Otis Jr., 6, Monday in their new apartment. On Jan. 7, a day after Buddy’s 6th birthday, they were displaced when their Third Street apartment in DeKalb caught fire because of an unattended candle. Watch a video of the pair at Daily-Chronicle.com.
Rising from ashes DeKalb single mom clings to dreams after apartment fire By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – As she looked through the charred remains of her apartment the day after a fire ravaged it, Gladys Sanchez saw her dreams in the ashes. She saw them in more ways than one. Sanchez, 26, had lost nearly everything. Every scholarship letter, published artwork and cherished picture had been turned to dust. But among the soot, she also found one of her paintings that read “dream,” practically unscathed. “I was going to pick it up off the floor and bring it to my new place to remind myself this is just a new beginning,” Sanchez said. “Don’t think you’re backtracking, because you’re not. If anything, this is going to be better.” Sanchez didn’t hang the painting right away, but it was there. The painting sat among donated furniture, clothes and food. After the fire destroyed their apartment Jan. 7, Sanchez and her son, Buddy Otis Jr., are moving forward in a new apartment thanks to a flood of donations and offers of help. Sanchez and Buddy lived at 136 N. Third St. in DeKalb for two years before a candle sparked a fire that officials said caused about $100,000 in
A piece of original artwork hangs Monday on the wall of Gladys Sanchez’s new DeKalb apartment that she shares with her son, Buddy Otis Jr. This canvas was one of two pieces she created that were untouched by a Jan. 7 apartment fire.
How to help To make a donation to Gladys and Buddy’s gofundme.com account, visit www.gofundme.com/gladysbuddy. damage. Sanchez said a friend lit the candle Jan. 6, after they returned to the apartment from Four Seasons Sports in Sycamore, where they celebrated Buddy’s birthday.
Her friend’s yelling woke Sanchez up that night, she said. When she did, she saw a small fire in her living room consuming a bookshelf and painting while her friend frantically waved a rag at the fire to put it out. Within minutes, she said, they had to run out of the building. “I’ve never ever felt that,” Sanchez said. “That you only have seconds to
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Obama promised ‘Year of Action’ in 2014 address; did he deliver? that annual trek up Pennsyl- eligible for protection from devania Avenue to address Con- portation and eligible for work gress once again, here’s a look permits. WASHINGTON – President back a year later at five of the Barack Obama used his last promises he made – and which MINIMUM WAGE State of the Union to declare got fulfilled and denied. One of Obama’s most ambi2014 a “Year of Action,” and tious ideas was to raise Amerihe can claim credit for accom- IMMIGRATION ca’s minimum wage from $7.25 plishing several of the goals he “Let’s get immigration re- to $10.10 an hour, upping the laid out. The smaller ones. form done this year,” Obama ante from the $9-an-hour proThat’s because while he was declared to a Congress that had posal he made in the 2013 State able to check off most of what long blocked his efforts. And so of the Union. Congress wasn’t he promised to do through ex- he did, although it was not the keen on the idea, but the presecutive action in last year’s broad plan he envisioned that ident was able to unilaterally speech, Obama was unable in would have allowed a path to make the change for new federthe bitterly partisan election citizenship for more than 11 im- al contractors. year to get Congress to go along migrants illegally in the United The White House estimatAP file photo with the bigger plans he had for States. ed it would directly help a few Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio lis- the country that required their Instead, Obama took execu- hundred thousand people, but tive action to make more than argues the bigger impact has tens as President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address approval. As Obama prepares to make 4 million of those immigrants been that several states and loJan. 28 on Capitol Hill in Washington.
By NEDRA PICKLER The Associated Press
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calities raised their minimum wage last year after Obama raised the debate.
RETIREMENT SAVINGS Obama was able to create a new retirement savings account – dubbed “myRA” for “my IRA” – geared toward lowand middle-income Americans who don’t have the upfront investment that many commercial IRAs require. For years, Obama has been asking Congress to encourage more Americans to grow a retirement nest egg by allowing all workers to be automatically enrolled in IRAs unless they
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