District 401, teachers union begin contract talks

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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:08AM

Contract talks between Elmwood Park School District 401 and its teachers union are getting started early.

Patti Faldani, president of the school district’s teachers union, said the current three-year contract expires in August. She said both the district and the union wanted to start negotiating prior to the contract expiring.

“We wanted to get off to an early start this year,” she said.

The union is made up of 198 district employees, primarily teachers along with certified staff like social workers and speech therapists.

Faldani did not go into detail about the union’s priorties. She said she was looking forward to sitting down with the board to discuss things.

“The district for the most part is taking an interest-based bargaining approach,” she said.

Kevin Anderson, superintendent of Elmwood Park School District 401, said so far they’ve come to terms with contract language issues.

Soon they will move on to the district’s financial status.

“We’re looking at the money in the district and we’ll do a presentation and show them this is where our money situation is,” he said.

Anderson said the district has nothing to hide financially.

“I’ve been in school districts were they did hide something,” he said. “We’ve been open and honest.”

As far as contract negotiations go, Anderson said they are just getting started.

“This is the beginning of the process, but it has been very good so far,” he said. “They’ve been very easy to work with.”

“They ask tough questions and they need to,” he said. “They’ve been very understanding with the whole process. I feel there is a good level of trust.”