The Daly Herald's summary of the situation prior to Wednesday night's District 300 Board meeting
The biggest item in every local government’s budget is employee salaries.
And the teachers’ contract is the biggest part of that budget segment.
District 300’s Board approved the contract with the IEA local called LEAD (what does that stand for?) Wednesday night.
But the public was NOT allowed to see its language prior to approval by either the teachers’ union or the Board.
In 2008, Huntley School District 158 idisclosed a new contract BEFORE it was voted on.
District 300 kept this big secret from taxpayers until it is a too late to say anything about it. Strangely, the two Heralds don’t object to this important lack of transparency. And, as you will read in the last paragraph of the press release, District 300 was not prepared to post the contract immediately after it was approved.
A press release reveals some details. Here it is:
Tonight (Wednesday, June 1, 2011) at a special public meeting of the District 300 Board of Education, the contract with the Local Education Association District (LEAD) 300 teachers’ union was approved by the Board. The contract was ratified by the teachers yesterday (Tuesday).
The contract is for a 1-year period (July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012) and contains the following:
- A salary freeze for the year
- Changes to the insurance plan
- Changes in overload, lunch duty and bus duty pay
- Calendar changes to better facilitate academic needs
- Creation of a Collaborative Council to address ongoing district educational initiatives and programs
In addition to the above, the board approved the recall of the 363 teachers who were released on March 24, 2011.
In addition to approving the LEAD contract and the recalling of staff, the Board also approved a salary freeze for all administrators.
As is customary with all employee contracts, the district will publish the new contracts on the D300 website in the near future, on the Human Resources page: http://www.d300.org/staff/human-resources.
Local Education Association of District (LEAD) #300.
For those wondering how the teacher unions are affiliated.
It’s the local school district affiliate of the Illinois Education Assocation (IEA) which is the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA).
Teacher union dues go to the local, state, and national affiliate.
Let’s see how the elected District 300 Board is representing its constituents.
There was no public review of the proposed contract, as there was in Huntley.
Even after it’s finalized, there is no listing of the exact changes to the contract. “Changes to the insurance plan” does not tell the impact to the taxpayer and is too vague.
The contract was not released immediately after the board approved it.
Residents can demand those items
Does the District 300 Board have any Citizen Advisory Committees?
Might want to look at the District 300 Budget to see how they can afford recalling the 363 teachers.
Might want to look at the District 300 $65 Million General Obligation Bond offering in 2008 to see how that will affect your tax bill in the future. Bonds do have to be repaid.
Board Vice President Chris Stanton
Board Secretary Karen Roeckner
Board President Anne Miller
Board Member Joe Stevens
Board Member Susie Kopacz
Board Member Dave Alessio
Board Member Steve Fiorentino
Superintendent Elect Michael Bregy
“As is customary with all employee contracts, the district will publish the new contracts on the D300 website in the near future, on the Human Resources page: http://www.d300.org/staff/human-resources.” per the Press Release.
It’s good that they will be complying with the law.
I’m shocked…sounds like the taxpayers get shafted again. Our employees tell us, the employers, how things are going to be run around here. There’s definitely something wrong with that picture.
Compared to the private business world – when times are tough and cutbacks need to be made, I would suggest it’s extremely rare to rehire all the people who have been let go.
Businesses that want to succeed and survive become more efficient and focus more on ABSOLUTE needs instead of wants. There will always be wants ready to be filled IF better days arrive.
Personally, those I speak to aren’t thrilled with a freeze because they know it will be made up down the road. They wanted rollbacks in benefits and salaries. However, that exists in the real world not the world of Education.
On June 1st, 2011 CUSD 300 stated in their press release: “As is customary with all employee contracts, the district will publish the new contracts on the D300 website in the near future, on the Human Resources page: http://www.d300.org/staff/human-resources.”
Today is January 13, 2012 and CUSD 300 still has not published the teachers contract between the CUSD 300 Board and the teachers union, Local Education Association of District 300 (LEAD300).
Why the delay? It’s been 7.5 months!
Here is the exact verbiage from the CUSD 300 website today.
“LEAD Agreement: The Board of Education voted to approve the terms in this compiled document on June 1, 2011, after these terms were ratified by LEAD 300 (association of teachers and other certified staff) covering the period from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012. When these terms have been incorporated into an updated contract, the contract will be posted to this webpage.”
http://www.d300.org/staff/human-resources/contracts
The contract will expire in 5.5 months and they have not even published it yet?!
Well the 2011-2012 CUSD 300 teacher contract is on the district’s http://www.d300.org website now at
http://www.d300.org/staff/human-resources/contracts
The title of the document is:
LEAD Agreement: This Agreement between District 300 teachers and the Board of Education remains in effect from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.
I am not sure when the district placed the contract on the http://www.d300.org website.
But it’s expired now.
Typically teachers work under the terms of the expired contract until a new agreement is reach.
Teacher salaries range from $41,000 to $101,000 in the salary schedule in the 106 page agreement.
But that doesn’t include stipends and other goodies.
So if you look at http://www.FamilyTaxpayers.org you’ll find teachers earning more than $101,000.
In “Find a District” type in “300” then choose “CUSD 300”.