ELMHURST, IL – A grievance filed by Elmhurst School District 205’s teachers union is pending before a state agency nearly a year later.
Last August, the Elmhurst Teachers Council claimed the district retaliated against York High School teacher Kelly DeLoriea after she appealed a one-day suspension.
In addition to the one-day suspension DeLoriea had already served, the union contended the school board gave her a public reprimand in the form of a “notice to remedy.” The discipline, the district said, was because DeLoriea revealed information about the child of her critic, Tom Chavez, on social media.
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Patch wrote about the dispute earlier this year.
Recently, Patch asked the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board about the grievance’s status.
Find out what's happening in Elmhurstwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In the board’s jargon, the grievance is referred to as a “charge.” The board’s staff must decide whether to issue a complaint to move the matter forward.
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“The bar to a complaint is fairly low, so most practitioners filing charges understand what must be pled to get a complaint, but may have weakness in their cases which may not be problematic until closer to hearing, thus leading to settlement,” John Brosnan, an attorney for the board, told Patch in an email.
Brosnan said he was unclear why the Elmhurst case has not been dismissed or sent to a hearing yet, given it is nearly a year old. In most cases, he said, the investigation is concluded in about six months.
He suspects the matter has taken longer because the agency has received so many cases.
“Things have slowed down,” Brosnan said in an interview.
He estimated about a fifth of the board’s cases are settled before the board decides.
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