Dozens of Lake County teachers have left in the last five months and the Lake County Education Association says it’s because they’re overworked.
The union represents 1,500 Lake County teachers and Klatte says the district has violated their contract.
Union president Stuart Klatte said the teacher contract allows about an hour each day to grade papers and plan for lessons.
But he says the school district started requiring additional meetings during that time. As a result, teachers are taking more work home than ever.
"Teachers don't want to let that parent- student instructional time slip,” Klatte said. “And so as they saw that slipping away they needed to say it’s time to stand up and say we need that time back.”
Klatte filed a grievance against the district. Before doing so, Klatte sent a survey to all of its members. More than 100 teachers filled it out and said they spent up to 30 hours working at home on required schoolwork.
School Board Chairperson Bill Mathias feels some of these issues may stem from a 3.5 percent pay increase that was voted on and approved, but hasn't been issued yet due to statutes.
"I think that anytime we have really these obstacles that are morale busters and when you affect someone's pay, you're going to affect their morale,” said Mathias.
Mathias says from July to November they lost 62 teachers. That’s up from last year when he says they lost 37 teachers in that same time period.
But he says their retention rate is 97.8 percent, compared to 98 percent last year.
The school district has 10 days to respond to the grievance before it heads into arbitration.
Service employees, like bus drivers, are also bargaining with the district regarding their contract. The school district says that is concerning seniority issues, school bus routes and bus assignments.