D229 Teachers to Vote on Salary Concessions to Avoid Layoffs

Oak Lawn Community High School teachers are set to vote Tuesday on a proposal to cut salary raises and freeze stipends over the next two years as part of their union collective bargaining agreement with the Dist. 229 Board of Education.

The teachers’ union vote comes on the heels of an emotional on March 16. Students and parents implored D229 school board members not to go through with teacher layoffs they said would seriously diminish student services and academic programs.

Board Proposal

The proposal put before teachers calls for decreasing salary increases to 4 and 6 percent over the next two years, instead of the 7 percent and 9 percent raises negotiated in the union’s five-year contract. Concessions also call for a freeze in teachers’ stipends for coaches and student club advisors.

Should teachers reject the proposal, the D229 school board will vote on “Plan B,” which is to lay off 33 teachers at the end of the school year. Earlier this month, the school board approved a measure to to reduce the budget deficit by $119,000 and create a surplus.

Teachers and support staff are expected to vote on the proposal throughout the school day on Tuesday, March 29. The D229 school board will hold a special meeting in the evening. Depending on the vote’s outcome, board members will approve the amended teachers’ contract or get out the ax.

The salary concessions are necessary, D229 Supt. Michael Riordan said, to preserve the school’s reserve fund and offset projected deficits of $2 million over the next three years.

“I hope the union passes it and not risk losing 33 teachers,” Riordan said.

Roadmap to the Crossroads

In a publicity campaign directed toward generating public support for the school board’s proposal to the teachers union, Riordan posted a letter on the school’s website last Thursday when students were off for spring break last week, stating, “Our school is at a crossroads.” Also included was a link to a multimedia slideshow posted on YouTube.

“The message served multiple purposes and was really directed toward the community,” Riordan said from the road on Friday, where he was in Springfield chaperoning students at an IHSA drama tournament.

“It was the same message we shared with teachers three weeks ago,” Riordan added.

Riordan, who narrates the presentation, explains how the school lengthened its school day to eight periods in 2004, adding to expenses and almost immediately creating budget deficits within the next three years. Bonds were sold so that the district could meet its extended obligations from the lengthened school day.

In 2008, the D229 school board and teachers’ union settled a five-year contract that included 5-, 6-, 4-, 4- and 6-percent salary increases, respectively, as well as STEP increases of 2 and 3 percent.

A common practice in civil service, STEP increases award automatic raises to employees on their job anniversaries. The proposal does not affect teachers’ annual STEP increases.

Preserving Reserves

“It’s a five-year contract and we are finishing up our third year,” Riordan said. “All we’re proposing are decreases in salaries and stipends, that they not be as expensive as what was bargained.”

The district has already been placed on “early financial warning” for not being able to maintain a reserve cash fund that is 50 percent or more of annual expenditures required by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Riordan places the D229 reserve at around $10 million as a “rainy day fund” to help carry the district over while waiting for biannual payments of property tax revenues and other aid.

“It sounds like a lot, but the expectation for school districts is to have at least 50 percent of expenditures on hand,” the superintendent said, adding that the “early financial warning” was one notch below the ISBE’s best ranking of “financial recognition.”

“We need reserves to help make ends meet until the money comes in. We haven’t received that in the past three or four years because of reserves,” Riordan said.

Belt Tightening

Riordan said the district has cut expenses by reducing the number of division administrators from six to four and consolidating the district superintendent’s and principal’s position into one, which Riordan is slated to take over this summer.

To help create a budget surplus in the next year, the high school has increased some student fees, including a $75/$25 per sport/club participation fee capped at $150 per student, and other program modifications.

Riordan blamed the “Great Recession” of 2009 that stagnated property values, resulting in less property tax revenues going toward the school district. Other federal and state aid was also cut.

The D229 school board has maintained that no one saw the housing market crash coming in 2008 when the teachers’ union contract was being negotiated.

“In Spring 2008 when we were finalizing the contract, looking back then there probably were some signs,” Riordan said. “I don’t know anyone who could have predicted how long it would last or how severe the impact would be.”

Expenditures in 2010-11 are $26.630 million, almost 80 percent of which is spent on teacher and support staff salaries. The district expects to accumulate $27.022 million in tax revenue in the current school year.

The district is projecting spending increases of 2.5 percent to 5.7 percent through 2012-2013, and 4.2 percent in 2013-2014 and beyond.

Adopting the board’s proposal now to cut teachers’ raises would balance the district’s budget over the next five years, Riordan said.

Union is Pleased

Union leaders shared the board’s proposal with their members last week.

In an emailed statement, D229 Teachers Union Local 943 President Kelly Rumel said "the union was pleased with the Board’s decision to delay the reduction in force of 27 certified teachers and 6 support staff employees (at the March 16 meeting). The decision reflected the Board’s consideration of the offer on the table shared with the union by the administration. The Board was comfortable going forward with the offer."

The union officers met with the membership to share the specific details of the offer, Rumel said.  

"In general, the certificated staff are being asked to take a 3 percent reduction in salary in both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years," she continued. "The response from the membership at the meeting was favorable. The union has never wavered in their resolve to find a workable, agreeable solution."