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Oc to ber 9, 2015 • $ 1 .0 0
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Sides work to bridge money gap Salary schedule, insurance focus of talks between D-156, teachers union Thursday night By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com McHENRY – The McHenry Community High School Educators’ Association and the District 156 school board remained at the bargaining table late Thursday night. No word had come from officials from either the school board or the association by press deadline. On Thursday, the district announced schools would be closed Friday.
Thursday’s session served as the fifth since the teachers union strike began Oct. 1, the ninth with a federal mediator and the 15th or 16th overall, said Gary Kinshofer, lead negotiator for the school board. On Thursday afternoon, Kinshofer said sessions have continued to circle around insurance contributions and compensation, specifically the structure of the salary schedule. “A majority of it has been trying to figure out the philo-
McCarthy withdraws from race for speaker
Inside See what events area businesses will host in place of homecoming for D-156 students PAGE A3 sophical differences on the salary schedule,” he said, reiterating the board’s position that a stretched out structure with half-steps is more sustainable in the long run. “I think it meets the district’s long-term goals better than the current one.”
Meanwhile, union spokeswoman Heidie Dunn has said that type of structure would mean it would take significantly longer for teachers to attain higher wages, which could affect the district’s ability to attract quality teachers. The most recent offers came Sept. 30. Kinshofer said although the more current proposals don’t necessarily reflect major changes, both sides have been willing to move since the beginning. District officials have pro-
posed a four-year contract. Under that offer, members on the salary structure would receive an average increase of about 3.63 percent in year one, a roughly 1.82 percent increase in years two and three, and a 3.63 percent increase in the final contracted year. The union’s offer included a 1.36 percent increase to the base salary each year of a proposed two-year contract, in addition to yearly step increases, which district officials have
said equate to an average of 3.63 percent. For insurance, the district had offered to pay 50 percent of the premium increases, in addition to the stipends teachers received last school year, which Kinshofer said ranged from $7,000 for singles and $15,500 for families. The association wanted to maintain the stipends and have the district pay 100 percent of the increased costs.
See D-156, page A7
COMMUNITY UNITES TO RAISE MONEY FOR 8-YEAR-OLD BOY WITH CANCER
By ERICA WERNER The Associated Press WASHINGTON – Confronting insurmountable obstacles, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suddenly withdrew from the contest for speaker of the U.S. House on Thursday, shocking colleagues just before they were to vote and producing ever-deeper chaos for a divided Congress. “We need a new face,” McCarthy declared Kevin after a closedMcCarthy door meeting where House Republicans were prepared to nominate him as speaker but instead listened in disbelief as he took himself out of the running. “If we are going to be strong, we’ve got to be 100 percent united.” Allies said that even though he would certainly have emerged the winner from Thursday’s secret-ballot election of Republicans, McCarthy had concluded he did not have a path to getting the needed 218vote majority in the full House later this month. A small but determined bloc of conservatives had announced they were opposing him, and they commanded enough votes to block him on the floor. These same lawmakers, members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, pushed outgoing Speaker John Boehner to announce his resignation just two weeks ago by threatening a floor vote on his speakership. Some of them cheered the announcement by Boehner’s No. 2. “The establishment has lost two speakers in two weeks.
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Brock Iverson, 8, of Cary calls out plays during the Cary Junior Trojans football practice Sept. 29 at Deer Path Elementary in Cary. Iverson is fighting cancer and is not well enough to play football, but he still attends practices on the sidelines and helps out the coaches. The team has rallied around Iverson with its “BROCK STRONG” campaign, which has raised more than $10,000 and will continue raising money through his three-year chemotherapy treatment.
Cary remaining ‘BROCK STRONG’ Fundraising efforts of coaches, classmates help relieve medical expenses By CAITLIN SWIECA cswieca@shawmedia.com
On the Web To see a video and more photos, visit NWHerald.com.
See McCARTHY, page A8
SPORTS
CARY – When Matt Batt and John Dunkin found out Brock Iverson, the vivacious 8-year-old they coached in baseball and football, had been diagnosed with leukemia, they immediately wanted to help. But each time the coaches asked Brock’s mother, Lynne Iverson, what they could do, she jokingly asked for the same thing:
a year’s worth of salary so she could spend more time by her son’s side. Perhaps that wasn’t quite realistic, but it got the coaches thinking. “Matt and I put our heads together and said, ‘There’s gotta be something we can do here as a community to get behind this family,’ ” Dunkin said. That led to the “BROCK STRONG” campaign – a multifaceted fundraising effort to help provide some financial comfort to the
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Iverson family – that has raised more than $12,000 since it began in August. Lynne Iverson said the money will help pay her insurance deductible and prescription costs and allow her to take unpaid days off work to accompany Brock to his treatments. Although she greatly appreciates the financial help, Lynne Iverson said the emotional support provided by the Cary
See BROCK STRONG, page A8
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