In a stunning admission, a Huntley teachers union spokesman is quoted indirectly, according to the Northwest Herald article by Tom Musick, to this effect:

“the district was ignoring financial surpluses that it had built up over the past few years.”

So the teachers who were rallying for a property tax increase a few years ago now want that money for themselves.

What the Northwest Herald or Daily Herald has not put into every day terms is how much more money each teacher would get if the board agreed to raises in the union’s latest proposal:

More than $2,800 per Teacher

It’s simple math, you take the dollar amounts in the news articles and divide by about 600 teachers. (That includes new staff for this new school year.) Divide $1,700,000 by 600 and you get $2,833. That’s more than what the Board has proposed.

How much would the average teacher in Huntley (who pulls down $50,000) a year, 36 week work year get?

For each of the next few years.

A ten percent increase in compensation a year.

Hey, that’s reasonable, isn’t it?

The property tax increase of a few years’ ago would go directly into the teachers paychecks.

And a tax hike referendum would be on the horizon.

What is not mentioned in the article (and which I doubt the Huntley Educational Association will confirm to the Northwest or Daily Heralds) is about two thirds of the HEA teachers don’t live in the school district.

How does paying every tenured teacher in Huntley an extra $2,800 beyond a good raise improve their performance in the classroom?

Surely Huntley teachers weren’t holding back on their performance last year.