Students and Teachers Back in Class after Lengthy Strike

Senior Hayley Thomas heads back to class for the first time in almost two weeks worried about what a prolonged strike would do to her college plans.

"I'm glad to be back I was kind of worried about financial aid and all of the other things and graduating on time was a big deal," she says.

Students weren't allowed to have contact with teachers during the strike making it difficult for Thomas to apply for college scholarships.

Thomas explains "asking teachers for letters of recommendations and such."

Not many details have been released about the four-year contract.

Washington School Principal Dan Rick says "my teachers were real happy this morning so apparently it's something both sides can be happy with and live with and so it's something we can recover from and just come back and create the same positive environment."

A challenge considering state funding is the lowest it's been in years. This school year alone District 170 received $450,000 dollars less of general state aid. It will likely only get worse.

Dixon Public School Superintendent Michael Juenger says "a lot of the concerns were not necessarily on the expenditure side because we had been controlling where it was coming from. It was on the revenue side."

The circumstances made it difficult for the district to meet teacher demands. Principal Dan Rick hopes that other small districts won't have to face the same problem.

Rick explains "My hope is that eventually funding will improve and those kind of things and we'll be able to avoid these situations and hopefully in the meantime we'll find ways to get through without it happening anywhere else."