Daily Herald Editor, Where Art Thou?

Who forgot to take the following sentence out of the Saturday Daily Herald article by reporter Jameel Naqvi?

“The proposal to tie teachers’ salary increases to inflation would seem to be a sweet deal for the district.”

Or has the Daily Herald turned into a blog where the writer regularly inserts his own opinions into the stories he writes?

You know.

Like me in McHenry County Blog.

The story was based on a joint press release from the District 158 negotiating team and the teachers union.

A school district’s property tax revenue in the district’s tax cap counties is tied to inflation, specifically, the Consumer Price Index.

Large salary increases to teachers over time could, of course, force another tax increase referendum.

Here’s what the article fails to point out:

District 158 teachers got a really sweet deal during the last 4-year contract.

The average annual salary increase for the 4 years was 7.5%.

That’s a 7.5% raise every year for 4 years.

It averaged 35% over the 4 years, if you look at the teacher contract details.
What was inflation, during those years (July 1 to June 30th)?

Inflation (Consumer Price Index) was:

  • 1.6% followed by
  • 2.4% followed by
  • 1.9% followed by
  • 3.3%

That’s a compound inflation rate of 9.5%, as opposed to a 35% raise.

That I believe is better than a sweet deal, and qualifies for the description of an “incredibly sweet deal.”

I wonder how many District 158 taxpayers did that well.

This doesn’t include the large additional salary increases teachers get by taking courses and getting college credits. The big extra money is racked up not only because a teacher has more college credits (which don’t have to be related to what is being taught), but because the contract says additional education qualifies one for more automatic salary increases in the future.

Take Huntley District 158’s existing salary schedule for teachers.

Teachers with bachelors degrees have a maximum of 12 steps for automatic salary increases. Another year on the job, another raise.

Teachers with the most educational course credits get 20 automatic salary increases

What’s the difference between a step 13 and a step 21 for a teacher who maxes out his or her education in D-158?

$19,456 per year. Regardless of what one teaches, it really pays to take those extra college courses to qualify for the additional number of automatic raises.
A 5% raise per year would have given the teachers a 21.6% raise over the 4 years while inflation was 9.5%.

But they got 7.5% a year.

This extra 2.5 percentage points each year for 4 years today costs District 158 taxpayers more than $2 Million a year.

And rumors from inside the union:

Apparently, the executive committee appointed the bargaining team without holding a vote of its membership.

So is the official District 158 teachers union bargaining team “official,” when it didn’t comply with its own by-laws?

Or is this a union ploy to say negotiations have to start all over again because the current union team is not legitimate?

Word on the street is union members are asking the Illinois Education Association for a copy of their own by-laws.


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