Ithaca Teachers Plan to Resign from Extracurriculars

The 32 teachers in the Ithaca School District in southwestern Wisconsin have announced they will resign from all extracurricular jobs next fall unless they are able to negotiate a fair contract before then.

Marv Shipley, UniServ Director of the South West Education Association, said that means teachers will resign as basketball, football, track, softball and wrestling coaches. They also will resign as advisers for music, forensics, FFA, FHA, the pep band and the yearbook. In Ithaca, he said, these extra jobs are not part of the teaching contract.

Contract talks have reached impasse, and no talks are scheduled until a mediation session in July.

In the last week, Ithaca teachers have begun conducting informal picketing before school begins.

"The teachers will do what they feel is necessary to get a good contract," Shipley said.

Posted April 17, 1998