Crystal Lake High School Board Approves Teachers’ Contract after Five Months of Negotiations

A press release from Crystal Lake High School District 155: D155 Reaches Agreement with D155 Education Association The District 155 Board of Education approved the teachers’ contract on Thursday, January 24. The D155 Education Association, district administrators, and the Board … Continue reading

Crystal Lake High School District 155 Teachers Get Raise of about 12% over Three Years

A Friend of McHenry County Blog, John Pletz, provides the following information about the Crystal Lake High School Board’s teachers’ contract action last night: 4 to 2, teachers win 12% over 3 year “2019 through 2022 agreement between the board … Continue reading

Unlike CL High School Board, Cary Grade School Board Posted Summary of Proposed Teacher Contract Three Days in Advance of Contract Vote

Crystal Lake High School District 155’s Board was scheduled to meet last night to pass the new teachers’ contract but cancelled the meeting because of bad weather. Now, the vote is scheduled for Thursday night. No one in the public … Continue reading

CL High School Board Agenda re Teacher Contract

Way down at the bottom of the Crystal Lake High School Board 155’s agenda for tonight’s meeting is the following: If you can attend the meeting and want to speak, you need to go early. What you see from the … Continue reading

District 155 Teachers’ Contract Up Tuesday Night at 7:30

From regular Crystal Lake High School Board attender John Pletz: What happens when teachers elect their family members to Community High School District 155’s Board of Directors? Taxpayers only get 48 hours of notice that these board members are voting … Continue reading

Continued Discussion on School Consolidation

In the “Here we go again” category is consolidation of schools. These comments by Lakewood’s Steve Willson stimulates me to re-post the analysis I did seven years ago under his reflections: I’m so tired of this “consolidate the schools” argument. … Continue reading

2016 Teacher Salaries in McHenry County Schools

Wish later statistics were available, but the information is still interesting. Besides the average salaries, the percentage of school operating budgets that go for teachers’ salaries is provided. The highest average teacher salary is found in Crystal Lake High School … Continue reading

Rauner Proposes Shifting Teacher Pension Payments to Local Taxpayers

To lessen the ongoing burden of paying pension costs of retired teachers, Governor Bruce Rauner wlll support House Speaker Mike Madigan’s idea to force local school district taxpayers to foot the bill. That’s what the Chicago Tribune is reporting today. … Continue reading

Replay: School Consolidation Would Cost Taxpayers Plenty

In the “Here we go again” category is consolidation of schools. Just as with township consolidation, I ask, “Where’s the beef?” Show me the money that school consolidation would bring. Don’t just assert that consolidation of school will save money. … Continue reading

Tribune Gets It

I have written periodically of how teacher unions during the 1990’s encouraged legislative leaders to take money governors earmarked for pension payments and put it into current teacher salaries through the State Aid to Education program. Articles on this subject … Continue reading

Rosemary Kurtz Keeps Campaign Promise to Be Fiscal Conservative

I noticed that the Northwest Herald did not report the vote on the three-years of 4% raises passed by the Crystal Lake High School Board on Tuesday night. The vote was 6-1. Newly-elected Rosemary Kurtz was the only one to … Continue reading

Figures on D155’s 4% Annual Teacher Salary Increases

After I received the press release (15 comments so far) about the contents of the contract from Crystal Lake District 155 last night, I submitted some questions. Those questions and the answers supplied are below: What will the starting salary be … Continue reading

McHenry High School Teacher Contract Finalized

Although no details have been released by the McHenry High School District 156 Board, Make found this in the early morning hours: Comment submitted on 2015/10/10 at 2:28 am The McHenry High School District 156 teacher union Facebook website announced … Continue reading

McHenry High Strike Update

McHenry High School District 156 has posted the following strike update: Strike Update 10-8-­15 The negotiating team is meeting again tonight. Parents are reminded that an emergency call will be made to all families when school resumes. This call may … Continue reading

McHenry High Schools Closed Again on Thursday

Here’s all that is posted on the District 156 web site: Schools are Closed – Thursday, October 8, 2015 Nothing in Spanish. If you have not looked at the power points that the McHenry High School Board presented to citizens … Continue reading

D156 Strike Update

From the administration of the McHenry High School District: Negotiations Update 10-­6-­15 A negotiations session has been scheduled for this evening at 7:30 p.m. Because any tentative contracts must be approved by the teachers’ association before school resumes, school is … Continue reading

McHenry High School Teacher Negotiations after Board Meeting

After at least an hour and a half of public comment and fifteen minutes of power point information from the school board’s side, the McHenry High School Board and its teacher union went back into negotiations behind closed doors. According … Continue reading