D130 Janitors Raise Alarm When Active Shooting Training Request Is Denied As Contract Talks Stall: SEIU
BLUE ISLAND, IL –
The news conference will start at 5 p.m. in front of
The union is calling upon the district administration "to end racist and anti-union practices." The district's custodial and maintenance workers have been in negotiations for a month after their contract expired on July 1. About 95 percent of the district's 30 custodians are Brown and Black, the union claims.
Shea Marshall, SEIU division director, said the custodial and maintenance workers have submitted comprehensive proposals including raises and benefits, but the Dist. 130 school board has not reached out with any questions.
More disturbing, Marshall said, is that the administration rejected the custodial and maintenance workers noneconomic proposals, including a request for active shooting training.
"We proposed that there be language in the contract requiring training on lockdowns, active shooters, law enforcement presence, and federal and state agency activity," Marshall said. "That same proposal included that all break rooms are supplied with proper communications equipment so that staff can be properly notified."
Nathan Hale Middle School, where Tuesday's public hearing will be held,
The custodians say there is no PA system in the maintenance room at Hale. Custodial workers are continually moving between the Hale primary, intermediate and middle school buildings, which are interconnect by a pedway.
During the 2023 incident, some custodians were in the hall of Hale Intermediate, when the soft lockdown order was announced, not knowing that the middle school building was in hard lockdown. Parents also blasted the school board about the administration's lack of communication and transparency, stating that the district did not communicate with families until several hours after the incident began.
According to the custodians, it wasn't the first time the district faced a lockdown crisis at one of its schools.
"There have been multiple incidents," Marshall said, then a D130 union steward in 2023. "I've been at two lockdowns at Veterans Middle School where we were having labor management disciplinary meetings. The only reason we found out was when someone across the hall and couldn't open the door."
The second time, Marshall said he had just finished a pre-disciplinary hearing and had already left the school.
"Five minutes after I got into my car and left, I got a call saying there was a lockdown the whole time we were meeting, and I was walking around outside and didn't know."
Marshall added both incidents happened around 2022 and 2023.
Tuesday's news conference was prompted when SEIU Local 73 alleged that members were denied the opportunity to make public comments during last week's working board meeting, when Dist. 130 Supt. Colleen McKay called for the sign-in book to be closed – a charge which McKay denies.
After the call to order and pledge of allegiance, the union alleges the board failed to follow the posted agenda by skipping the public comment portion and moving immediately into closed session. The union claims the board never returned to the public comment portion during the remainder of the meeting.
"Our members came here to exercise their first amendment right of free speech and call for an end to the administration's racist and anti-union practices in Blue Island," SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer said in a written statement. "It was sad to see the school board disrespect and ignore these workers."
McKay told Patch in an email that the working board meeting on Sept. 9 was conducted in accordance with the
"The meeting began on time, and the agenda was followed," McKay said, speaking on behalf of the
The Dist. 130 superintendent further stated that the board recognized "the SEIU members' attendance and the concerns they wished to express."
"The board takes contract negotiations seriously and remains committed to working with
The SEIU Local 73 news conference will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, in front of Nathan Hale Middle School, 5220 W. 135th St., Crestwood, before the D130 school board holds a public hearing on a tentative FY 2026 budget, starting at 6 p.m. If you're going, enter through door 10 where the hearing will be held in the middle school gym.
