On Thursday, the District 203 Board of Education approved the NUEA’s new contract, meaning that a strike has been averted. Additionally, the approved contract shows no specific plans for the Innovative School Experience, dimming prospects for a block schedule.

The Innovative School Experience was a plan that the D203 Administration hoped to implement during the 2026 school year, but pushback from both staff and the Naperville community helped delay the plan. NUEA President Ross Berkely expressed satisfaction with the new contract in a written statement. 

“We are glad our new contract is ratified, so we can put this behind us and focus on moving forward together with our students, our community and all of our stakeholders,” Berkeley wrote.

Now, the district could only implement the block schedule in the next four years by renegotiating the contract. Naperville North High School Principal Jay Wachtel noted that these sort of stalemates are not completely unheard of in District 203. 

“There’s actually been three different times where a schedule change has been attempted and it hasn’t happened,” Wachtel said. 

During the 2024-2025 school year, the district sent out a survey where D203 parents could express their thoughts on the proposed schedule change. The FOIA of this survey’s responses showed that the ISE could positively impact some students and their families, especially with later start times and busing schedules, benefiting sleep-starved teens. 

“[The] 8:20 am start time [for highschoolers] will definitely give students opportunities to focus more on good sleep as well as doing better in their assignments and academics,” one response said.

However, the schedule change was unpopular among many community members, particularly parents with children in elementary and middle school levels who expressed that they could not adjust their work commute to accommodate the new schedules. Additionally, many members of the NUEA expressed that under the old contract, they felt under-compensated for the amount of work that goes into putting a block schedule into action.

With the new contract, block schedule or not, there was a “fair” increase in wages according to the NUEA release. 

“[The contract] provides fair salary increases for teachers, including annual base salary increases of 3.85% in year one, 2.5% in year two and at least 2% in years three and four,” the NUEA posted.

The resolution of the contact has allowed for students to return their focus to school without anticipating a strike. NNHS Senior Abby Corbett mentioned her excitement to enjoy her senior year. 

“I’m just glad that I can enjoy all the opportunities offered this year, especially as a senior,” Corbett said.