Huh?

“Though these negotiations were lengthy, neither side ever lost focus on the end-goal of serving our students and community.”

I thought the focus was using kids as pawns to squeeze every last summer out of the taxpayers?

I’m”tired”, but I do have a full time job and work 10 hour days through the entire year.

That and since I work in the private sector, which doesn’t have a blank check available, I have received about 5% wage increases in the past 4 years while Obamacare has totally ruined my insurance so my net take home is decreasing.

Add that to the crazy property tax bills and I have no idea how people do it.

Go to non corrupt states and they offer good schools at reasonable prices…

$2k property taxes for a $200k house, not $7kish.

I always remember our teachers motto though, it’s for the money… I mean we use kids as pawns… oh it’s something like that.

Rant done, nothing will change!

Well District 155 is making an improvement in collective bargaining transparency but there is much more work to do and no reason to be satisfied with this level of transparency.
Board paid TRS needs to vanish ASAP.
It’s incredible it’s legal.
Board paid TRS means the employer pays (picks up) not only the employers portion of the pension contribution, but also the employees portion of the pension contribution.
Typically the employees pension contribution is a deduction from the employees pay.
But not with Board Paid TRS.
Let’s compare that to private sector.

Have you ever heard of an employer “picking up” the employees Social Security contribution?

Well teachers and administrators don’t pay into Social Security, and therefore don’t receive Social Security benefits for their years worked as a teacher or administrator.

Furthermore, the employers pension contribution is equal to the school district contribution (a paltry 1/2 of 1 percent)
PLUS the State of Illinois contribution on behalf of the employer.

That State of Illinois contribution is astronomical Rolls Royce contribution, better than any private employer offers.

The State of Illinois can’t afford that contribution because it’s been hiked through legislation by guess who, State of Illinois legislators and governors.

So here we have District 155 teachers (and administrators receive the pension picku up perk also) NOT contributing their “fair share” to their already Rolls Royce pension plan.

A Rolls Royce is not good enough.

It’s absurd.

Moving on.

4 hours “free” on Institute Days proposed by teachers…why?

It’s an Institute Day.

It’s not a 1/2 Institute Day, 1/2 Free Day.

Collective Bargaining Agreements should have a third ratification…taxpayers.

Taxpayers should also be able to view the exact change document being proposed for ratification, not just a summary.

The exact change document would identify the strikethroughs (deletions) and markups (additions) so taxpayers could view all the changes.

After ratification that change document should be posted on the school district website along with the final document, so
taxpayers can view both the the change document and final document at any time.

There is no way the average person knows what has happened or is happening with these collective bargaining agreements or
they would be outraged.

And it’s not just teachers.

It’s police, fire, state workers, etc.

Obviously not every single agreement.

Each is unique.

But in general plenty of flat out abuses.

Here are some Crystal Lake High School District 155 statistics.

FY—-Avg Salary–Avg Experience–% Admin–% Salary Increase
2002—$67,659——–12.7———-17.0——————–
2003—$68,824——–12.0———-18.5———-2%——–
2004—$73,143——–11.3———-19.3———-6%——–
2005—$76,227——–11.3———-19.9———-4%——–
2006—$78,015——–11.1———-20.5———-2%——–
2007—$80,194——–11.1———-21.0———-3%——–
2008—$84,433——–11.4———-21.0———-5%——–
2009—$86,817——–11.6———-18.8———-3%——–
2010—$93,223——–12.4———-18.9———-7%——–
2011—$94,574——–13.0———-18.8———-1%——–
2012—$95,227——–13.0———-16.5———-1%——–

FY = Fiscal Year.
Avg Salary = Average Salary per administrator and teacher.
Avg Experience = Average Experience per administrator and teacher.
% Admin = Percent Administrators.
% Salary Increase = Percent Salary Increase over previous year.

Average annual salary increase over 10 years is 4%.
Source: Illinois State Board of Education Teacher Service Record (ISBE TSR).

Let’s do a bit of rudimentary analysis of the above information give what we know about TRS teacher and administrator pensions.

TRS covers Illinois public teachers and administrators outside Chicago Public Schools.

There are two TRS Tiers.

Tier 1 covers teachers and administrators who began their career, and that would include one day of substitute teaching, prior to 2011.

Tier II covers teachers and administrators who began their career in 2011 or later.

Tier 1 TRS starting pension is is 75% of the average of the last 4 years worked for “full” retirement.

Tier 1 full retirement is 35 Years of Service.

Years of Service is different than Years Worked.

There are many ways to obtain Years of Service.

One can exchange up to 2 years of unused sick leave for 2 years of service.

Exchanging 2 years of unused sick leave would result in 33 years of service.

But wait, there’s more.

One can purchase years of service via the Early Retirement Option (ERO).

ERO was just RENEWED for 3 years (it could have been cancelled) in 2013 via state legislation.

There were a few “reforms” in ERO renewal but bottom line it still exists, and it will cost taxpayers more than ever, because the employee and employer contributions were increased.

Noteworthy the Employer contribution is 2x the employee contribution.

Incidentally it’s probably not a stretch that normal TRS contributions have the same ratio, meaning the normal Employer TRS contribution (district plus state) is 2x the employee contribution, WITHOUT “pension pickup”.

Anyways look at the last 4 years average salaries above for teachers and administrators combined.

FY—–Salary–Years Worked
2009–$86,817—–11.6
2010–$93,223—–12.4
2011–$94,574—–13.0
2012–$95,227—–13.0

Total Average Teacher and Administrator Salary for 4 years is $369,841.

Average of Last 4 Years of $92,460.

75% of $92,640 is $69,480.

Average Years Worked in above scenario is 12.5 years.

That’s nowhere close to 35 years, although with ERO one can retire as early as 20 years.

1% (that’s one percent) or less of teachers or administrators actually
retire with 35 years worked.

The main point is, if the fictional starting pension is $69,480 after 12.5 years worked, can you imagine what the starting pensions will be?

Astronomical.

Due to big salary increases in the past and continued salary increases during the recession and its aftermath, and due to legislative pension benefit hikes, we now have big starting pensions that are underfunded.

The problem is bigger than the government is leading you to believe.

The State of Illinois was charged by the SEC for misleading bond investors by the SEC.

Bond investors are not the only ones that have been misled.

The taxpayer has been duped as well.