211 teachers strike

[Controlled Chaos]

Any opinions? Anyone affected? I found this article pretty interesting.

 

 

Teacher Unions and the New math: 20% is 10%

By Bill Zettler

 

Unbeknownst to me the CPI (Consumer Price Index) went up by over 20% the last 3 years. Although I checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics and they said 10% I read an ad in the Daily Herald on Sunday, November 4th from the teacher union at District 211 that said they were going on strike soon if they didn’t get big raises.

 

In fact the ad says the teachers had agreed previously to limit increases to less than the CPI for the last 3 years and that’s why the strike was justified.

 

So just to make sure I understood what the teacher union meant I decided to check what actually happened to District 211 teacher salaries over the 3 year period 2003-2006. What I found out was that the 554 teachers who worked at Dist. 211 for that 3 year period averaged 19.8% salary increases.

 

Therefore it follows that the CPI must have been over 20% because the union’s ad in the Herald said they were working for increases less than the CPI. Therefore either the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the teachers union is wrong. Call me a cynic, but I believe the BLS.

 

And by the way, 149 of those 554 teachers had increases in excess of $20,000, which doesn’t sound like a sacrifice to me. I wonder – how many readers of this article had their salaries increase by $20,000 over the last 3 years?

 

The other teacher salary issue is Average Salary. That particular calculation is virtually meaningless when it comes to the parallel universe that is the Illinois Public School system. As an example I again refer to District 211. In 2006 the average teacher salary at 211 was $82,254 and in 2002 $85,438.

 

Now do you really think that the teachers took a salary cut between 2002 and 2006? Of course not. The Average Salary figure is used by the unions because it is unrepresentative of the real increases being received by the teachers every year. The Teacher Retirement System (TRS), which tracks all salaries, states that the average year over year is 6.5%, which according to my 3-year spreadsheet (see here) is just about right.

 

The reason the Average Salary is unrepresentative is because when $150,000/yr teachers retire they are replaced by younger teachers making perhaps $50,000/yr. In District 211’s case there were 3 teachers in 2006 that made more than $150,000: a Drivers Ed teacher, a Phys Ed teacher and an Auto repair teacher. So even though that $50,000 teacher had a raise of 6.5% the average actually goes down because of the $100,000 decrease.

 

You will notice that neither the taxpayers nor the parents nor the students get any extra benefit from paying a $150,000 Drivers Ed teacher rather than a $50,000 one. The only people who benefit from this scheme are the teachers.

 

What possible benefit accrues to the community when taxes are used to pay $150,000 for a service that should cost 1/3 of that amount? Why don’t we pay $50,000 for drivers ed and use the other $100,000 for other public purposes such as health care for poor kids?

 

Keep in mind, in Dist 211, 319 out of 891 full-time employees made more than $100,000 and when they retire and are replaced by less expensive, but just as adequate, teachers it drives down the average.

 

And of course you are not done paying after they retire. Teachers total pension payments during their retirement adds up to more than twice what they made when they taught. So you pay them when they work then you pay them even more for not working. In the case of the three $150,000 teachers above, total pension payout over their expected lifetimes, for all three combined, will exceed $12 million, not including health benefits which currently average about $4,000/yr.

 

Again, wouldn’t the community as a whole be better served if we paid out say $5 million in pensions to these three teachers and used the other $7 million for homeless shelters and food pantries?

 

To paraphrase the home-schooled Abe Lincoln, the Illinois Public schools are “of the teachers, by the teachers and for the teachers.” You have nothing to say about it. You write your check for the taxes and the union writes their check to the politicians. That’s how it works in Illinois.

 

 

Posted November 6, 2007

 

[SoxFanForever]

I think it's a joke. I went to Hoffman Estates in D211. When people like the Drivers Ed/Football coach (for the worst damn team ever) is making well over 100k there is something wrong in the salaries. So what do they do? Demand more money!

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Any opinions? Anyone affected? I found this article pretty interesting.

Teacher Unions and the New math: 20% is 10%

By Bill Zettler

 

Unbeknownst to me the CPI (Consumer Price Index) went up by over 20% the last 3 years. Although I checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics and they said 10% I read an ad in the Daily Herald on Sunday, November 4th from the teacher union at District 211 that said they were going on strike soon if they didn’t get big raises.

 

In fact the ad says the teachers had agreed previously to limit increases to less than the CPI for the last 3 years and that’s why the strike was justified.

 

So just to make sure I understood what the teacher union meant I decided to check what actually happened to District 211 teacher salaries over the 3 year period 2003-2006. What I found out was that the 554 teachers who worked at Dist. 211 for that 3 year period averaged 19.8% salary increases.

 

Therefore it follows that the CPI must have been over 20% because the union’s ad in the Herald said they were working for increases less than the CPI. Therefore either the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the teachers union is wrong. Call me a cynic, but I believe the BLS.

 

And by the way, 149 of those 554 teachers had increases in excess of $20,000, which doesn’t sound like a sacrifice to me. I wonder – how many readers of this article had their salaries increase by $20,000 over the last 3 years?

 

The other teacher salary issue is Average Salary. That particular calculation is virtually meaningless when it comes to the parallel universe that is the Illinois Public School system. As an example I again refer to District 211. In 2006 the average teacher salary at 211 was $82,254 and in 2002 $85,438.

 

Now do you really think that the teachers took a salary cut between 2002 and 2006? Of course not. The Average Salary figure is used by the unions because it is unrepresentative of the real increases being received by the teachers every year. The Teacher Retirement System (TRS), which tracks all salaries, states that the average year over year is 6.5%, which according to my 3-year spreadsheet (see here) is just about right.

 

The reason the Average Salary is unrepresentative is because when $150,000/yr teachers retire they are replaced by younger teachers making perhaps $50,000/yr. In District 211’s case there were 3 teachers in 2006 that made more than $150,000: a Drivers Ed teacher, a Phys Ed teacher and an Auto repair teacher. So even though that $50,000 teacher had a raise of 6.5% the average actually goes down because of the $100,000 decrease.

 

You will notice that neither the taxpayers nor the parents nor the students get any extra benefit from paying a $150,000 Drivers Ed teacher rather than a $50,000 one. The only people who benefit from this scheme are the teachers.

 

What possible benefit accrues to the community when taxes are used to pay $150,000 for a service that should cost 1/3 of that amount? Why don’t we pay $50,000 for drivers ed and use the other $100,000 for other public purposes such as health care for poor kids?

 

Keep in mind, in Dist 211, 319 out of 891 full-time employees made more than $100,000 and when they retire and are replaced by less expensive, but just as adequate, teachers it drives down the average.

 

And of course you are not done paying after they retire. Teachers total pension payments during their retirement adds up to more than twice what they made when they taught. So you pay them when they work then you pay them even more for not working. In the case of the three $150,000 teachers above, total pension payout over their expected lifetimes, for all three combined, will exceed $12 million, not including health benefits which currently average about $4,000/yr.

 

Again, wouldn’t the community as a whole be better served if we paid out say $5 million in pensions to these three teachers and used the other $7 million for homeless shelters and food pantries?

 

To paraphrase the home-schooled Abe Lincoln, the Illinois Public schools are “of the teachers, by the teachers and for the teachers.” You have nothing to say about it. You write your check for the taxes and the union writes their check to the politicians. That’s how it works in Illinois.

 

 

Posted November 6, 2007

The Champion is a really big anti-union site.

 

It'd be better if the Champion attacked Illinois as a whole for being one of the worst states in the US in school economic disparities. Instead, it just becomes "Union=Bad" hilariousness.

 

Two -- knowing their salaries, what is the cost of living in that area? I mean, simply just posting "OMG! THEY MAKE X!" is a bit disingenuous if one does not then couple that with the cost of living in the area.

 

I'll stop now because this kind of stuff is a major pet peeve for me, not that CC posted it -- just the blowhards of the Champion web site which are a bunch of anti-union hacks.

[CrimsonWeltall]

Two -- knowing their salaries, what is the cost of living in that area? I mean, simply just posting "OMG! THEY MAKE X!" is a bit disingenuous if one does not then couple that with the cost of living in the area.

 

$82k is slightly above the median family income. Median home price is $214k.

[GoodAsGould]

Its ridiculous because some teachers get paid over 100k while others get paid half of that or something. What they need to do is get rid of the fat paychecks and create a balance. I dont care how long a teacher has been working there they dont deserve over 100,000

[StrangeSox]

I hate teachers' strikes and those that participate in them. It just comes off as EXTREMELY selfish and makes it seem like they couldn't care less about those they're supposed to be educating, as long as they get their 20% raises.

[Controlled Chaos]

The Champion is a really big anti-union site.

 

It'd be better if the Champion attacked Illinois as a whole for being one of the worst states in the US in school economic disparities. Instead, it just becomes "Union=Bad" hilariousness.

 

Two -- knowing their salaries, what is the cost of living in that area? I mean, simply just posting "OMG! THEY MAKE X!" is a bit disingenuous if one does not then couple that with the cost of living in the area.

 

I'll stop now because this kind of stuff is a major pet peeve for me, not that CC posted it -- just the blowhards of the Champion web site which are a bunch of anti-union hacks.

I know nothing about The Champion website, I just had that email sent to me and a lot of it made sense. The anti union thing didn't strike me as much as some of the numbers they posted did.

[retro1983hat]

Ahh yes. Let's not pay the people that are teaching kids more money. Makes sense. Nearly every 211 teacher has a Master's Degree. Compare that with an Engineer who has been in their field for 20 years with a Master's Degree. I am sure they all make good money.

 

I find it interesting that when people see what someone makes, they judge it by their own salary. Like how can anyone make more than me. They are just teachers. Imagine someone with knowledge in a specific subject, running an all seminar for adults in calculus, science, etc ...... They would make $100 an hour.

 

Teachers deserve whatever they can get. Their job is far more important than some sales rep or auto worker. JMO. And, no, I am not a teacher.

[StrangeSox]

Ahh yes. Let's not pay the people that are teaching kids more money. Makes sense. Nearly every 211 teacher has a Master's Degree. Compare that with an Engineer who has been in their field for 20 years with a Master's Degree. I am sure they all make good money.

 

I find it interesting that when people see what someone makes, they judge it by their own salary. Like how can anyone make more than me. They are just teachers. Imagine someone with knowledge in a specific subject, running an all seminar for adults in calculus, science, etc ...... They would make $100 an hour.

 

Teachers deserve whatever they can get. Their job is far more important than some sales rep or auto worker. JMO. And, no, I am not a teacher.

 

I'd agree with that entirely. Teachers, in general, are poorly compensated and they're one of the most important professions in the country. I still don't support them refusing to educate their students.

[NorthSideSox72]

I have no problem at all with teachers making 6 figures, if they and the school are performing well. And I will gladly pay more in property taxes for good schools. Very few things are that important to me, but education is one of them.

 

And LCR is right about the balance of funding. That is a huge embarrassment. For anyone who wants to explore how education funding is amplifying the gap between rich and poor in the Chicago area, you should read Kozol's Savage Inequalities. I am not saying that all teachers should be paid 100% equally, but, the current system is unfair in the extreme.

 

As for striking... I would agree to the extent that it should be absolutely a last resort. Perhaps the solution is for the state to employ some sort of mediation team that can be brought in when these impasses become critical. One made up of people with backgrounds in education as well as business.

 

[Heads22]

It's against the law to strike here....

[RockRaines]

Its ridiculous because some teachers get paid over 100k while others get paid half of that or something. What they need to do is get rid of the fat paychecks and create a balance. I dont care how long a teacher has been working there they dont deserve over 100,000

Most teacher do not even sniff half of 100k, and many do not even sniff 100k. I have several teachers in my family working for over 30 years and have not even come close to that. Teachers are one of the most grossly underpaid professions on this earth. They are entrusted with the extremely important development of our children yet are paid less than someone like me who basically travels around the country talking for a living.

[jasonxctf]

the champion website is bs.

 

personally, i graduated from D211. My best friend teaches there and many others in my graduating class do as well so take my random comments below with a grain of salt.

 

The problem with the article is that it is misleading. It talks about 19% raises over 3 years. Sounds like a lot, right. But that 19% represents both COLA increases and year-to-year raises. We constantly see 3.8% CPI numbers, but those numbers dont account for items such as housing or gasoline. (We all know that housing prices up until recently were increasing at a rate of 10-12% per year, and gasoline has risen at 25%+)

 

Teachers are supposed to be paid based upon the area in which they teach in. You teach in Schaumburg, housing prices are more. Thus it costs you more to live in Schaumburg and you get paid accordingly.

 

I love those who complain about teacher salaries as a whole. You get what you pay for. Someone working as a receptionist in a doctors office (hs degree) complains that they make 40k a year and a teacher makes 50-60k per year, for 8 months. Guess what, that teacher is (a) certified (B) has a college degree © in most cases has a masters degree (d) works more than 8 hrs per day.

 

Now that my rant is over, like life in general, you get what you pay for. Want to pay the average teacher 40k a year, guess what you are going to get.

 

Also, don't think I don't see the irony of Soxtalk posters complaining about a teacher making 100k a year after the Sox just agreed to pay Juan Uribe $4.5 million.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

I have no problem at all with teachers making 6 figures, if they and the school are performing well. And I will gladly pay more in property taxes for good schools. Very few things are that important to me, but education is one of them.

 

And LCR is right about the balance of funding. That is a huge embarrassment. For anyone who wants to explore how education funding is amplifying the gap between rich and poor in the Chicago area, you should read Kozol's Savage Inequalities. I am not saying that all teachers should be paid 100% equally, but, the current system is unfair in the extreme.

 

As for striking... I would agree to the extent that it should be absolutely a last resort. Perhaps the solution is for the state to employ some sort of mediation team that can be brought in when these impasses become critical. One made up of people with backgrounds in education as well as business.

Kozol's newest book "Shame of the Nation" is also really good. Property taxes as the primary mode of funding is insane.

 

And also, CC, it wasn't a knock on you. Just being in the education field and also having been a column writer, I've read the Champion site a lot in the past and got their major bent that their ideology arcs toward.

 

As for the school's success, you can check it here: http://webprod.isbe.net/ereportcard/public...chCriteria.aspx

 

 

[Chombi]

I am all for teachers getting theirs. They have an important job in our society and I have no issues. My problem is they just got a damn raise.

 

So to me personally, it is a joke. My parents were heavily involved in the boosters there and they worked their asses off to get that referendum passed a couple years back. Now the teachers want more. It's rediculous.

 

I have been out of the district for 4 years but I have family, friends, etc...To me, it is a slap in the face to my mother and father, and everyone else who helped them out last time when I believe the district wanted to cut salary because of it being in debt and nearly bankrupt...so for this to happen again is a shame. They can't go on strike every 2 years. It's a joke.

 

It would've been a real shame if those students in athletics didn't get to compete in the heat of the playoffs and what not because of how greedy the teachers are. I am assuming they are playing because I saw the paper w/Fremd still playing so I'll take that as they're allowed to go on. I did hear at first though that athletics would be cancelled so I am still uncertain.

[GoodAsGould]

the champion website is bs.

 

personally, i graduated from D211. My best friend teaches there and many others in my graduating class do as well so take my random comments below with a grain of salt.

 

The problem with the article is that it is misleading. It talks about 19% raises over 3 years. Sounds like a lot, right. But that 19% represents both COLA increases and year-to-year raises. We constantly see 3.8% CPI numbers, but those numbers dont account for items such as housing or gasoline. (We all know that housing prices up until recently were increasing at a rate of 10-12% per year, and gasoline has risen at 25%+)

 

Teachers are supposed to be paid based upon the area in which they teach in. You teach in Schaumburg, housing prices are more. Thus it costs you more to live in Schaumburg and you get paid accordingly.

 

I love those who complain about teacher salaries as a whole. You get what you pay for. Someone working as a receptionist in a doctors office (hs degree) complains that they make 40k a year and a teacher makes 50-60k per year, for 8 months. Guess what, that teacher is (a) certified (B) has a college degree © in most cases has a masters degree (d) works more than 8 hrs per day.

 

Now that my rant is over, like life in general, you get what you pay for. Want to pay the average teacher 40k a year, guess what you are going to get.

 

Also, don't think I don't see the irony of Soxtalk posters complaining about a teacher making 100k a year after the Sox just agreed to pay Juan Uribe $4.5 million.

 

You cant compare athletes salaries to that of normal people everyday jobs. That business as a whole is just so insane in the amount of money they bring in cant be compared. We all know how outragous the salaries are for these athletes. I know that some teachers in D211 were making over 100 grand, at my school atleast(Conant) and I dont think a teacher deserves that much. On the other end the ones making only 30k deserve more.

[StrangeSox]

You cant compare athletes salaries to that of normal people everyday jobs. That business as a whole is just so insane in the amount of money they bring in cant be compared. We all know how outragous the salaries are for these athletes. I know that some teachers in D211 were making over 100 grand, at my school atleast(Conant) and I dont think a teacher deserves that much. On the other end the ones making only 30k deserve more.

 

Back when I was going to Lockport, there were only two teachers making over 100k. One was a soon-to-be retired history teacher. The other was the Driver's Ed "teacher" who also happened to be the baseball and football coach and spent most of his time on the phone with recruiters. So the ridiculous-ness of sports salaries seeps over into education, as well.

[StrangeSox]

The problem with the article is that it is misleading. It talks about 19% raises over 3 years. Sounds like a lot, right. But that 19% represents both COLA increases and year-to-year raises. We constantly see 3.8% CPI numbers, but those numbers dont account for items such as housing or gasoline. (We all know that housing prices up until recently were increasing at a rate of 10-12% per year, and gasoline has risen at 25%+)

 

Teachers are supposed to be paid based upon the area in which they teach in. You teach in Schaumburg, housing prices are more. Thus it costs you more to live in Schaumburg and you get paid accordingly.

 

What other professions b**** and moan and walk off the job because they "only" got 19% raises, though? Everyone gets paid based upon the area the work in. An engineer in Chicago or Southern California makes more than an engineer in Kansas because of higher cost-of-living. If teachers deserve raises of 20%+, why don't other professions?

[CrimsonWeltall]

It's easy to sympathize with an inner city teacher making a crappy salary and working in overcrowded, poorly funded classrooms. It's harder to sympathize with suburban teachers making more than the average household in their area complaining that their 6+% yearly raise isn't enough.

 

 

[LowerCaseRepublican]

What other professions b**** and moan and walk off the job because they "only" got 19% raises, though? Everyone gets paid based upon the area the work in. An engineer in Chicago or Southern California makes more than an engineer in Kansas because of higher cost-of-living. If teachers deserve raises of 20%+, why don't other professions?

It all depends on what raises the administration are giving themselves, the politics of that particular district, the politics inside the building(s) (if things are acrimonious, they can get really heated real quick), what teachers are being asked to do outside of their teaching classes duties (i.e. AM/PM monitoring duties, lunch/recess supervisions, supplemental curricula that the school is adding which requires altering/realigning previous curricular activities in one's classroom, the amount of compensation for post-school actions like working sports games, et al.)

 

There's a lot more to the situation than just "They want X for a raise." in the situation.

 

And Strange, to answer your questions -- it may be because the job requires numerous hoops of certification, scouring with background checks, having to perform 5-6 classes per day (depending on the courses, you may have to plan for 1-3 classes for the year i.e. History, World History, etc.), having to perform a bevy of tasks after professional hours are over, play nurse/psychologist/social worker/role model/doctor/circus performer/disciplinarian on a daily basis for over 100 children, deal with the parents of those 100+ children, make professional meetings, professional improvement days, grade assignments, keep the online gradebook up to date so parents can access their kids' grades and have them be up to date, make your assignments/keys/copies, get make up work ready, get suspension work ready, retrieve lost lunch cards and bus passes, play prison guard when watching the kids in the hallways, making sure the kids all get to class without being tardy, making sure that office referrals get brought down to the office, keeping good communication with your grade level teams about what is going on with students/parents/topics in classes/cross-curricula top down activities like our move towards increasing literacy skills, doing any other extracurriculars, attending students' extracurriculars, working on developing a positive relationship with the 100+ children, keeping their parents up to date about their behaviors so it does not appear that any student has fallen through the cracks, dealing with the parents who leave a lot to be desired from assistance at home, dealing with the parents that try to get staff fired because of some non-existent perceived slights, dealing with parents who want to be too involved and try to micromanage your decisions, co-planning with special education teachers regularly with your plans to make sure that they do not need to be modified at all for special education students because full inclusion means that they are in the rooms as you are teaching (and hopefully the class is co-taught with the special ed teacher or a good teacher's aide), modifying those materials that need to be modified for the special education students, attending IEP and 504 meetings, keeping up to date bulletin boards with daily homework assignments, the week's homework for your classes, the chapter topics as we cover them, putting up and maintaining any motivational posters, playing Fire Chief and disaster drill sarge for fire/tornado drills, keeping kids calm and quiet during Code Red emergency drills...and that's all really I can think of off the top of my head -- I'm kind of tired right now.

 

/was up early to go watch the 7th and 8th graders perform at speech contest today

//then graded 100+ exams at work

[3E8]

Two words: summer vacation

[Controlled Chaos]

Teacher pay hikes more than they seem

By Emily Krone

 

When administrators and union leaders reached a deal on a teachers contract, the September announcement trumpeted across-the-board raises of 3.8 percent.

 

Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers promptly rejected the deal.

 

The 3.8 percent was not the chief problem -- class size, teacher evaluations and future pay raises together sunk the deal.

 

Still, the 3.8 percent raise was cited in most discussions about the proposal -- and it wasn't what it seemed.

 

Most teachers would have received more than 3.8 percent.

 

A first-year teacher who earned eight semester credit hours during the year would have ended up with a 14 percent pay raise -- more than three times the advertised rate.

 

This discrepancy between what was reported as the pay increase and what was actually in the deal is typical of most contract negotiations.

 

The recent haggling in the state's largest high school district is a case in point.

 

Teachers in Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 were on the verge of a strike until the school board agreed Thursday to tack an additional 0.3 percentage point onto their raises for next school year, the second year of a two-year contract.

 

The school board had offered a 2.5 percent increase, but teachers were holding out for a second-year raise tied to the rate of inflation, now 2.8 percent.

 

Though teachers were willing to walk the picket line over the difference between 2.5 and 2.8 percent, neither figure reflects the raises most teachers actually will receive.

 

The deal will afford nearly three-fourths of teachers raises from 6.2 percent to 8.5 percent this year and between 4.9 percent and 7.9 percent in the second year.

 

Three raises …

 

Teachers typically can receive three types of raises -- and some receive all three in a single year.

 

Still, teachers -- and union officials -- usually only mention one of the three when talking about pay increases.

 

The type of raise most commonly reported during negotiations is the across-the-board base pay increase.

 

In U-46, the base pay raise was set at 3.8 percent in the first year of the tentative deal. In the second and third years, raises would be equal to the Consumer Price Index plus one percentage point.

 

In District 211, the raises will be 3.25 percent in the first year and equal to the Consumer Price Index in the second.

 

The second type of raise is called a step increase.

 

Most teachers also receive this raise, which is figured on top of the base raise.

 

Step increases are for experience, and teachers typically receive them every year for the first 20- or 30-odd years of their careers, depending on the district.

 

In some districts, though, teachers who don't go beyond a bachelor's degree will stop earning step increases after less than 10 years.

 

On the other hand, some districts will provide additional "longevity" raises, on top of the base pay raises, for teachers who no longer receive step increases.

 

A District 211 teacher just starting out will get the 3.25 percent base pay raise -- and a step raise of 5.2 percent -- for a total raise of 8.5 percent.

 

A teacher nearing the end of her career will get the 3.25 percent base pay bump and a step increase of 2.9 percent, for a total raise of 6.2 percent.

 

The third type of raise is the pay bump most districts give for taking advanced coursework. These "lane" raises can be worth thousands of dollars, but often are discounted by teachers, in part because teachers don't earn them every year.

 

In District 211, a first-year teacher who earns a master's degree would receive a pay bump of about 10 percent for graduating to a new lane.

 

District 211 officials have not released estimates of how much the average teacher would receive when you factor in base, step and lane increases under the new pact.

 

So the actual teacher raises in District 211 exceed even the district's ranges of 6.2 percent to 8.5 percent this year and 4.9 percent to 7.9 percent next year -- because the lane increases are not accounted for. The only teachers actually limited to just the publicized 3.25 percent raise are those who have exhausted all step and lane opportunities and make more than $100,000.

 

U-46 officials combined the cost of step and lane increases, projecting the two raises would cost the district an additional 1.9 percent. With base, step and lane increases, then, the typical U-46 teacher would have received a 5.7 percent pay raise in the first year of the tentative deal the union rejected. Published figures of 6.1 percent include increases in retirement payments.

 

… & they all count

 

Districts must take all three raises into account when calculating the true cost of a contract, Fox Lake Elementary District 114 Superintendent John Donavan said.

 

Otherwise, he said, "you have a real hard time (balancing) your budget and a real hard time conveying to the public what that is going to cost you."

 

The challenge, Donavan said, is persuading teachers unions to account for all three raises when reporting salary increases.

 

"Some teachers associations don't like to view step increases as part of the annual salary increase. They just like to look at that as money they are due no matter what," said Donavan, stressing that's not the case with his district's union.

 

When negotiating a contract, most districts do account for the costs of base, step and lane raises, U-46 Chief Financial Officer John Prince said.

 

"But the question is, do they reflect those in the stated raises?" Prince said.

 

Prince projects the cost of step, lane and base-pay increases, using data from previous years to determine which teachers are likely to earn more credit hours.

 

Other districts in the midst of contract negotiations forecast the cost of step and base increases, but not lane changes, since those are more difficult to predict.

 

The most recent contract for West Aurora Unit District 129, for example, affords base raises of 2 percent and average step raises of 2.2 percent. The district did not calculate how much lane raises were worth, spokesman Mike Chapin said.

 

Other districts simply count the overall cost of the contract to the district.

 

When McHenry Elementary District 15 negotiated its new teacher contract, the main issue on the table was how much "new money" the district would provide to teachers, Chief Financial Officer Allan Smigiel said.

 

But the cost to a district is not commensurate with what the average teacher receives. If a district has a number of teachers retiring who have reached the top of the pay scale, overall salary increases could appear deceptively modest.

 

In District 214, for example, a new contract called for base salary raises of 4.25 percent for all teachers. But with 80 teachers retiring, the overall cost of the new contract was only 2.5 percent.

 

The district couldn't immediately estimate the value of average step and lane increases.

 

"Our matrix is so large and teachers are moving not only across but up," District 214 spokeswoman Venetian Miles said. "It's really difficult to calculate what average raises would be."

 

Community Unit District 300 Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Crates said there's no one right way to report teacher raises.

 

Still, she said, her district chose to calculate the cost of lane, step and base pay raises together.

 

"We included it all, for transparency," Crates said. "It all depends on the culture of negotiations … and on what group you're talking to."