Teachers and Parents Protest D159 Board Meeting: VIDEO

Mother of three Jennifer Hartmann, 36, moved to Mokena four years ago so her children could attend the very school district she protested Thursday night.

"I was torn between a house in Frankfort and Mokena, and I love Frankfort. But people said the Mokena school district is so awesome," Hartmann said.

On Thursday, Hartmann and about 50 to 70 other parents and teachers attended a school board special meeting en masse at .

Despite the planned topics of the meeting (the board assigning a review of whether Early Start or could be brought back and giving a non-union employee a $2 raise due since an August 2010 promotion), the assembled crowd had only one item on its agenda – Mokena teachers working without a contract.

Several group members estimated the crowd at about 70 percent teachers, but the 30 percent who were parents also felt they had a stake.

"It seems as if morale is down and morale affects the (classroom) environment, and I want the environment to be a positive one," said mother of four Kristin Welsh, 35, of Mokena.

The Mokena Teachers' Association's last five-year contract expired June 30. Negotiations so far have failed to come up with a new one.

"I just want to see our teachers get a contract, bottom line," said mother of two Anna Briscoe, 40, of Mokena.

The group did not have any demands beyond coming to a contract agreement both sides can live with. That's what the board wants, too.

"I think the board wants a fair and equitable contract," board President John Troy said.

But "fair" means different things to different people. The disagreements, details and dollar amounts preventing any agreement are still in closed negotiation.

Until a new contract comes, teachers continue to make last year's salary, not getting the cost-of-living raises most union contracts demand.

Over the summer, the district switched to a new HMO for health insurance. As the new provider didn't have the same plan as the old ones, teachers had to pick between new rates that were lower or, in the case of union spokesman Laurel McGowan, higher.

"Salary is flat, exactly what it was last year," McGowan said. "But many of us are paying significantly more for our insurance so we're bringing home less."

The five-year contract that expired over the summer was supposed to have been in place by the start of classes in August 2006. A deal wasn't finalized until Feb. 27, 2007.

The previous contract took until October, said McGowan, who has taught in the district for 11 years.

Interim Superintendent Steve Stein, who started teaching in the district in 2001, agreed with McGowan's recollections.

"It's usually gone into the beginning of the next school year in this district," said Stein.

But McGowan said those negotiations, while lengthy, were conducted in a different time and a different town.

"Things were very different," McGowan said. "The community was very different, the whole economic climate."

While mostly civil, the meeting turned ugly at points. Some teachers yelled out of turn and board member Kathy Moore, attending the meeting via speakerphone, interrupted mother Stacy Cesta in order to criticize Troy for allowing the woman to speak on a non-agenda item.

"This is not the way to run this meeting, John," Moore said later in the meeting.

Teachers working without a new union contract is the latest hot-button issue for this often-troubled district.

A $2.7 million budget shortfall led not only to , but also to . Over the summer, divisive by Mokena Elementary School Principal Stein. Perry was re-assigned to be Stein's assistant.

Although and , some parents were worried about the divide previous referendum attempts revealed between the younger parents who voted for the referenda and the older empty nesters who by and large voted against.

"We weren't told that there was starting to be a disconnect between the community, the school and the school board," said Cesta, who moved from upstate New York about 18 months ago. "I believe we didn't get wind of any of this because people still can't believe what's happening here."