No D90 teachers contract, plenty of legal fees and grievance

River Forest Teachers did not accept the latest terms of a negotiated contract in voting that started Monday December 1, 2025. Formal negotiations between District 90 and the River Forest Education Association (RFEA, local teachers union) began in April 2025. The previous contract expired on August 15^th, 2025.

District 90 pointed to teachers as the barrier in a recent social media post saying:

“This past week, members of the River Forest Education Association (RFEA) voted on the proposed new teacher contract representing the tentative agreement created together by the negotiation teams representing the District 90 Board of Education and the RFEA.

Today, voting closed and we learned that the tentative contract did not receive sufficient favorable votes for ratification by the membership.”

Teachers have given public comment saying years of bad decisions, a dismissive administration, and low pay have put school quality in jeopardy. The district has not given clarification of its negotiation position with tax-paying residents, calling this silence “in good faith”.

$97,002 in legal fees FY to date

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request failed at associating specific legal expenses with contract negotiations yet succeeded in quantifying overall legal fees as well as pointing out redactions in the legal fee ledger. The table below summarizes overall legal fees paid for fiscal years 2022 through 2025, and the first half of 2026. The general ledger FOIA response can be found here. 

District sources explained the redactions hide payments such as settlements etc. included here because there is no other accounting bucket for this type of expense.  Note on interpretation - The Every Student Succeeds Act created a national requirement for accounting down to the school level within districts. The ledger tables show legal expenses divided evenly among three school buildings and not attributable to any one school.

 Legal invoices in a separate heavily redacted FOIA record show Debbie Lubeck, Director of Student Services named most often, besides superintendent Ed Condon.  Lubeck joined district 90 in July 2021 following the resignation of Denise Mathews from her role as Director of Special Education.   

Diane Wood, former Principal of Willard Elementary School, is also named in invoices often with Lubeck. Wood announced her resignation in early 2024 and was replaced by Christine Gerges.

Former Curriculum Director Alison Hawley, who announced her resignation in late 2023, was named in an April 1, 2024 invoice. Superintendent Ed Condon appointed Christine Trendel to replace Hawley on July 1, 2024.

It appears district 90 uses the Franczek firm primarily for matters of real estate. 

Grievance

The same FOIA request for legal service invoices shows nearly $65,000 in legal fees associated with “Grievance” in 2024 and 2025. Matter 024589 was invoiced for $34,802.25 on March 25, 2025. No further details on any grievances were ascertained from the FOIA records, including no connection of grievance to district 90 “no bucket” payments redacted from the general ledger FOIA.

Nobody wants grievance of course, but it would seem even a little might be useful in helping to hold schools accountable. District 90 board members and administrators did not have ears to hear resident concerns over the past several years as the poor curricula and instructional practices replaced the proven, as books were banned from the library, as the district  became a national outlier for low learning rates. If they had, then much of the academic, financial, and now teacher issues facing River Forest district 90 may have been avoided.

It’s E3, where equity still means fairness.

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