Three firms and eleven agents – River Forest District 90 squares off against teachers
- The E3 Group
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
River Forest district 90 has eleven agents from three separate firms under contract as the district negotiates the next teachers’ contract, according to a recent FOIA. E3 asks who, why, and how much are negotiations costing taxpayers?
Contract negotiations between River Forest district 90 and teachers represented by River Forest Education Association (RFEA) have been underway for nearly six months. The last mediation was held September 30, 2025 when afterwards RFEA reported out on social media “Once again, District 90 and the RFEA have not reached an agreement on teacher compensation and benefits.”
District officials are denying Freedom of Information Requests that would otherwise give residents an understanding of how much time and money is being spent on negotiations.
A FOIA request on September 23 asked for:
"District 90 documents, contracts, emails, correspondence, or communications otherwise, with any and all firms providing legal and or mediation advice to district 90 in connection with Spring 2025 and ongoing negotiations with River Forest Education Association."
Superintendent Ed Condon denied the request pretending every document, contract, and correspondence contained “collective negotiating matters” or actual negotiations, which are protected under FOIA Section 7(1)(p).
A follow up FOIA was explicit that no collective negotiating matters were being requested, only contracts and documents that might indicate terms and firms providing legal advice or mediation. Condon denied this request, seeming to pretend a contract between the district and firms were instead an incomplete teacher’s contract. This section of FOIA law reads as follows:
Nowhere does Illinois FOIA law exempt school districts from disclosing existing vendor/service contracts.
While Condon avoided sharing any documents, he did share a list of currently employed firms and agent names with no description of services, terms, or otherwise.
Franczek P.C.
Nicki Bazer, Partner
Ares Dalianis, Partner
Engler Callaway Baasten & Sraga, LLC
Cynthia Baasten, Partner
Teri Engler, Partner
Abigail Rogers, Partner
Robbins Schwartz, Ltd.
Ken Florey, Partner
Thomas C. Garretson, Partner
Philip H. Gerner III, Partner
Holly E. Jacobs, Associate
Natalie A. Jakubowski, Associate
Matthew M. Swift, Associate
Teachers speak up at board meeting
With Evanston’s failed de-tracking experiment as River Forest’s model, it is no surprise elevating social programs above curriculum and instruction sours students and families and corrupts school culture. River Forest teacher’s said as much again in an hour of public comment at the October 7th meeting of district 90 board members.
“I had to sell my car to help balance the family budget” said one Elementary teacher.
Another teacher, retired after 30 years at district 90, said “the feeling and the vibe had changed tremendously, but not for the better”, referring to the last few years. She spoke about teachers trying to use the 5 Essentials Survey to communicate problems and said “for years issues were never addressed, and exit interviews are never done in district 90.”
Another said, “with three masters degrees and after 28 years, I’m still waiting to reach a six-figure salary”.
Superintendent Ed Condon, the chief administrator of “equity” in the district, offered a box of tissues as another veteran teacher sobbed while describing district conditions.
Anyone can google how important experienced and high performing teachers are to school quality. What teachers said again Tuesday was years of bad decisions, a dismissive administration, and low pay, have put school quality in jeopardy.
Needless to say, it is going to take more than lawyers and a box of Kleenex to mop up years of mistakes made by district officials.
It’s E3, where equity still means fairness.
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