McHenry High School District Finally Puts Teacher Contract on the Internet…Sort Of

Since at least August 13, 2009, school districts have been mandated to post their contracts with teachers online.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that McHenry High School District 156’s teacher contract was not posted.

That’s been the law at least since this Public Act 96-0434 was signed on August 13, 2009, maybe even before since the 95th legislative session was before the 96th.

Per Section 10-20.40 of this Code, as added by Public Act 95-707, a school district must post the contract that a school board enters into with an exclusive bargaining representative. The school board must provide the terms of that contract online.

When I asked the district, this is the reply I received,

“According to our Regional office our contract does not have to be posted on our website.  If you are requesting a copy we can mail it to you.”

I called the Regional Superintendent of Education’s Office, pointed out the law and passed on the information that District 156 was using its authority as justification not to post the contract.

Later yesterday afternoon, I was informed,

“We were able to get the document scanned so attached is the teachers’ contract…sorry for the poor copy of the front cover.  It is also going to be posted on our website this afternoon.”

With a large tax hike referendum on the ballot April 2, I started looking at the contract to see why the school board might not want to make it readily available.

With all the talk about pensions, I looked at the Retirement section on pages 32 and 33.

Here’s what I found:

This is the section of the collective bargaining contract signed by McHenry High School District 156 Board of Education that commits taxpayers to paying the teachers' share of their pension payment.

In case you can’t read it in the image, here’s what it says:

The Teachers Retirement System pamphlet says that teachers have to pay 9.4% of their salaries to finance their pensions.

“The board will contribute a portion of each teacher’s compensation to the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System.  This contribution is included as part of the total teacher’s salary as shown on the compensation schedule (Appendices A, B and C) and the extra-curricular schedule.

“The amount of the contribution will equal 9.4% of the teacher’s compensation as above described.

“The individual teacher will have no right or claim to these funds except as they become available upon retirement or resignation from the Teachers’ Retirement System.  Contributions paid directly by the Board to the Teachers’ Retirement System, under these provisions, will not be included in the teacher’s W-2 Form for federal or state income tax purposes pursuant to Section 414(h) of the Internal Revenue Code.

What’s that mean?

It says that teachers don’t pay anything for their pensions.

Taxpayers pick up the whole tab.

I was able to find the whole contract by typing “teacher contract” in the District’s web site search engine.

But, guess what?

I couldn’t download the contract from the web site.

"The document must be approved before downloading."

A message popped up saying,

The document must be approved before downloading.

That’s not the way I read the law.

How about you?


Comments

McHenry High School District Finally Puts Teacher Contract on the Internet…Sort Of — 5 Comments

  1. Maybe I’m reading this wrong but it sounds like 9.4% of each teacher’s posted salary (the amount you see on the lists you keep posting) is pre-tax dollars that go directly into their retirement fund that they can’t use until they retire or resign.

    Therefore, it’s their money and they DO pay for their pensions but they could not use the money for other expenses if they needed to such as for medical bills, etc.

    Yes, its taxpayer money that pays their salaries which includes their pensions but then its my retail dollars that pay the clerks at Jewel and their pensions as well. What’s the difference?

    We get a benefit from the teachers educating the kids and from the clerk helping us with our purchases.

  2. The truth shouldn’t be so hard to find. At the strategic planning committee meeting, I was told that teachers pay for a portion of their pension, and the tax payers pay for a portion. Also, we were told that tax payers pay for the entire portion of the adminstrators’ pension.

  3. It’s available here.
    https://www.dist156.org/index.php/finance.html
    Under the Finance Tab of http://www.dist156.org.
    The 2010-11 Salary Compensation Report is there too. You can FOIA the previous year Salary Compensation Report to see their increases or visit familytaxpayer.org (teacher salary database).

    Why does McHenry HSD 156 not have a complete compensation (wage and benefit) freeze in effect if they are asking for a referendum.

  4. Hello People of Earth (residing in D156 or any other school district in Illinois),

    What are you thinking now after reading Cal’s piece?

    Are you saying “I didn’t know thaaaaaat!”

    Are you thinking that it is okay to be a couch potato, wear blinders, and not vote for common sense fiscal sanity – while others give away your hard earned money because you don’t get involved or because you give unquestioning trust – TO THE WRONG PEOPLE?

    While you are clipping coupons, searching for sales to save some pennies to put in your or your children’s dwindling or empty piggy banks, sending in for rebates, using duct tape to hold your shoes and tires together, watching gas/food/clothing/prescription/insurance prices go insane and eating cereal and rice far too often, your dollars and your children’s dollars are being eaten by the school industry pacmen/pacwomen ala the old video game!

    Chomp chomp here and chomp chomp there, here a chomp, there a chomp, everywhere a chomp chomp……and YOU are barely left with chomped chump change.

    And when a law comes along to keep you at least somewhat informed – it’s not followed……. (Don’t even try to tell me the people who profess to know everything else are somehow “uninformed” about this law.) You can bet your bottom bippy if this was a law guaranteeing some new benefit or money to these folks that it would be followed before the ink was totally dry.

  5. All those fat cat teachers and their limosines need to be taken down a notch. Shame on them thinking they should enter a public service career for what would be much less than they could earn in the private secter with their college degrees.
    Give them a 4.5% raise and see if they put it into a 401K like the rest of us. Or not as they see fit. I mean just because we negotiated a contract doesn’t mean we should honor it.

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