An advisory referendum that could have statewide implications will be on the ballot next month in the Hinsdale area.

Voters in Hinsdale Township High School District 86 will be asked if the district should ask state lawmakers to forbid teachers and other public school employees from going on strike.

“The whole point, through all of this hubbub, is that we know what the answer is, that teachers are just as important as police and fire,” said Richard Skoda, a District 86 School Board member who approved putting the question on the ballot. “For teachers to strike, to hold our kids hostage, is unhealthy.”

Skoda does not come from a union-busting background. In fact, he was a teacher for 35 years and part of a teacher’s union.

“But when push came to shove, I don’t think I ever could have gone out on strike,” Skoda said.

The question on the ballot for School District residents reads, “Shall the Board of Education of Hinsdale Township High School District 86 petition the Illinois General Assembly for a change in state labor law to prohibit teachers and other professional employees of public school districts from striking or engaging in any form of work stoppage?”

Skoda said this question comes on the heels of a November district referendum which asked if end-of-the-year pension spikes of 6 percent should continue for teachers. That referendum helped get 50 percent of all eligible voters in the district to the polls, Skoda noted, and 70 percent of those voters said that the procedure should be discontinued.

The School Board president said that he thinks advisory referendums like the two on the district ballot – the other asks whether student and parent input should be considered for teacher evaluations – are a good way to gauge public opinion.

“Advisory referendums are infrequently done because boards get entrenched and like the way things are done,” Skoda said. “And, (state House Speaker) Michael Madigan does not want those kinds of things going in front of people.”

Skoda said the current District 86 Board is unique in that it is the district’s first board of people not backed by the Hinsdale High School Teachers Association.

Representatives of the HHSTA and the Illinois Education Association could not be reached for comment on the referendum as of press time.

Skoda said the union has continued to take its shots at the board.

“First, they told us that we were elected in a low turnout and didn’t represent the residents,” Skoda said. “Then they said we were elected to speak for the people and we didn’t need to ask people’s opinion (via referendum).”

Hinsdale District 86 averted a strike in October, agreeing to a new teachers contract just days before instructors were schedule to hit the picket line.

District 86 covers Burr Ridge, Clarendon Hills, Darien, Hinsdale and Oak Brook.

Skoda said too often school districts cave to teacher demands once they walk out of the classroom or threaten to and children’s education is at risk.

“We are all opposed to paying ransom until it is our kid or grandkid,” Skoda said.

He said contract pay hikes are given, but school districts don’t have the funds to meet the contract requirements. He noted the consumer price index, which limits school districts’ ability to increase their tax levies, was 1.7 percent this year, and will be close to 1 percent next year, yet the district teachers, per their contract, are entitled to 2.5 percent raises.

Skoda said he expects an overwhelming vote calling for prohibiting teachers from going on strike will get lawmakers’ attention in Springfield.

“All politicians want to get re-elected. If they see 70 to 80 percent of voters are for something, they figure, ‘What is it going to hurt to propose that thing?’” Skoda said.

But he said in an election there are no guarantees.

“Who knows how this will come out?” Skoda asked. “People may say ‘We believe in the right of collective bargaining and ownership and if conditions are so bad, teachers should have the right to strike.’”

He said some of his peers on the board have called it a “silly referendum,” noting that the state can’t outlaw teacher strikes.

“I hope this is universally accepted, that state reps will see this, go down to Springfield and start changing some of the internal flaws we have,” Skoda said. “Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the godfather of unions, did not feel that government employees should be allowed to form unions because of problems it could create.”