{"id":4415,"date":"2016-04-26T05:57:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T11:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4415"},"modified":"2016-04-26T08:32:42","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T14:32:42","slug":"update-on-illinois-thank-god-i-dont-live-in-palatine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/update-on-illinois-thank-god-i-dont-live-in-palatine.html","title":{"rendered":"Update on Illinois: Thank God I don’t live in Palatine!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AWarsaw_Negotiation_Round_Senate_of_Poland_2014_01.JPG;<\/a><\/p>\n

where the Elementary School District 15 School Board has, as far as I, or pretty much any observer, can tell, given away the farm in its negotiations with the teachers\u2019 union. \u00a0 The School Board has promised raises of 2.5% for the first four years of the contract, and 4% for the last six years, and, yes, that means it\u2019s a 10 year contract, which is unheard of for all the obvious reasons \u2014 the fact that so many factors are up in the air over a 10 year time period puts the School District at risk of serious financial difficulties in the future. \u00a0(How many people these days get 4% raises?) \u00a0And those 2.5%\/4% raises don\u2019t even take into account the cost impact of pay hikes for teachers earning master\u2019s degrees or other graduate credits, and the district faces additional cost increases depending on medical inflation. \u00a0And there are also \u201cstep\u201d increases for each year of teaching experience on top of these annual raises. \u00a0(This isn\u2019t mentioned in the various reporting, but it\u2019s a standard part of a teacher\u2019s contract \u2014 see the existing D15 contract, available online<\/a>.) \u00a0Oh, and all upper-middle-class school districts in Illinois are at risk of significant losses in State funding, as multiple proposals have been made to shift more state money from broad state-wide formulas to direct it specifically to poor districts.<\/p>\n

(Geographical note: \u00a0School District 15 is generally identified as being in Palatine, a middle to upper-middle class suburb northwest of Chicago, but, like many Illinois districts, it stretches over a number of towns<\/a>, including wealthy areas such as Inverness and poorer areas such as two pockets of apartment complexes with a poor immigrant population.)<\/p>\n

And how they\u2019ll pay for these pay hikes? \u00a0The favorite school district means of claiming free money: \u00a0by offering older teachers incentives to early-retire in the form of modest versions of pension spiking \u2014 6%\/year raises for the last four years of work, if they commit to retiring \u2014 so as to replace them with younger teachers paid half as much. \u00a0(See the Chicago Tribune<\/a>\u00a0for details, or the Daily Herald for a non-paywalled report<\/a>.) \u00a0Of course, this in itself is either an indicator that the entire \u201cstep\u201d schedule is too generous, if teachers get pushed out, or the retirement benefits are too generous, if large numbers of teachers can afford to early retire, or, alternatively, if those teachers deserve their higher pay because their years of experience translates into greater skill, this simply means that they\u2019re deliberately cutting the quality of their instruction. \u00a0\u00a0And it might indeed not materialize at all, if the teachers don\u2019t take the deal. \u00a0(And never mind that this pushes pension costs onto State taxpayers.)<\/p>\n

And why would the district agree to a 10-year deal? \u00a0According to the Tribune<\/a>,<\/p>\n

One person who might have helped bridge the gap was Lisa Nuss. She was the union president until last year, when she joined the administrative staff as executive director of personnel and human services. Nuss could not be reached for comment Friday. Thompson said he led the negotiations, and Nuss did not unduly influence them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, yes, I\u2019m relieved that it\u2019s not my district at risk of serious financial trouble down the road. \u00a0But my district, or yours, could be next.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0university students at a Negotiation Tournament \u2013 who are probably making a better effort to secure a good deal than the School Board. https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AWarsaw_Negotiation_Round_Senate_of_Poland_2014_01.JPG; By Micha\u0142 J\u00f3zefaciuk (Senat Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) [CC BY-SA 3.0 pl (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/pl\/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

where the Elementary School District 15 School Board has, as far as I, or pretty much any observer, can tell, given away the farm in its negotiations with the teachers\u2019 union. \u00a0 The School Board has promised raises of 2.5% for the first four years of the contract, and 4% for the last six years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[94,11,376],"class_list":["post-4415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-education","tag-illinois","tag-teachers-unions"],"yoast_head":"\nUpdate on Illinois: Thank God I don't live in Palatine!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"where the Elementary School District 15 School Board has, as far as I, or pretty much any observer, can tell, given away the farm in its negotiations with\" 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