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Schools

D229 Teacher's Union Won't Budge on Cuts to Afterschool Programs

School board members recently approved cuts for extracurricular programs, which have teachers' union members asking, "Why now?"

With cuts to extracurricular programs on the table, members of Oak Lawn Community High School District 229’s teachers union will sit down with the school board Monday in a closed meeting to try to stop the district’s elimination of coaches and student club advisors.

The school board gave Oak Lawn administrators the on March 8 to lay off ten coaches and 12 student activity advisors, which would create a budget surplus of $119,812 at the end of the school year, officials said.

D229 Superintendent Michael Riordan said cuts to afterschool programs are necessary now that five-year projections show a staggering $2 million deficit on the district's horizon.

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“Our [expenditures] are growing at a significantly higher rate than our revenues,” Riordan said of the district’s financial outlook.  “Because of the housing market and the economy in general, our revenue is not where we projected it to be, now or into the future.”

Moreover, the proposal includes the elimination of stipends – which range from $3,100 to $8,900, based on teachers’ experience – for coaches and faculty club advisors, such as the French club and photo club.

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Because of the layoffs, afterschool clubs will have to be consolidated; an example, the French and Spanish club will become the world languages club.

Advisors would also take on a larger role, as most clubs would only have one advisor.

D229 Teachers Union Local 943 President Kelly Rumel claims, however, that the district is in good enough shape to keep the 22 extracurricular positions intact, pointing to $10 million in district reserves, $65,000 raised through fundraisers and a budget surplus of almost $260,000 for the 2011-12 school year.

In an e-mail to Patch, Rumel added that changes to the district's health insurance policy next year will also save an estimated $106,000.

“The administration continues to suggest there are problems in our future,” Rumel said of the looming deficit, which she claims the district based “hypothetically” five-percent raises due to teaching staff.

Monday, Rumel hopes the teachers union can assuage the board's concerns, so an agreement can be reached on the long-term budget.

“We don't believe this is an accurate projection,” she said. “Nonetheless, we tried to ease those future concerns [with the board].”

Rumel also said the union will definitely abstain from striking over these issues; the union is currently in the third year of a five-year contract that was approved by almost every member of the current D229 school board.

“We are very upset,” Rumel said. “We are trying our best to get the administration and board to come to a workable solution with the union.”

One thing for certain: to offset the $1.5 million cost of extracurricular activities, Oak Lawn’s fundraising has fallen short.

With a goal of $150,000 set by the board at the beginning of the school year, Riordan noted that the district has only raised $65,0000 to date.

“We do have other fundraising activities planned for later in the school year,” Riordan said. “I can't say I'm optimistic about reaching that goal, though.”

Where will the district get the money to fund the programs, then?

While Rumel thinks spending reserve funds to meet the current extracurricular budget is necessary – Superintendent Riordan thinks its a slippery slope.

“To receive the best grade from the state,” Riordan continued, “you need to have 50-percent of your expenditure budget in reserves. Obviously we're pretty well below that.”

School districts, according to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), have five indicators of financial stability, the highest indicator being “financial recognition.”

D229 is currently under “financial early warning,” a step above “financial watch.” Right now, district reserve funds are 13.8 percent of expenditures, which is 20.6 percent lower than what reserve funds were in the 2008-09 school year.

Riordan noted that the district is deficit-spending by taking money out of its reserves yearly; and meeting the 50-percent ideal set by the state keeps the district in good financial standing in case D229 needs to borrow money down the road.

“We need to have cash on hand,” Riordan continued, “because we only get money from property taxes at one point in time during the school year. And then, we don't get a lot at all until six, eight or ten months later.”

When Cook County is late in sending out property tax bills, the district has to borrow money and use property taxes to pay interest on the loans, which is hardly financially sound, Riordan said.

“Things seem rushed and out of control,” Rumel said. “The union membership is still confused–  why now? Why are we just now hearing these concerns?”

Rumel said the school board, at the request of the teachers union, rejected a two-year extension to the current teacher's contract, which would have frozen all teachers’ salaries and expenses for the next two years, saving the district $800,000.

“There is tremendous angst over our situation,” Rumel said. “We are having a difficult time understanding why, during times of surplus, the board is insistent on reducing salaries when we and our families are feeling the same effects of the current economy?”

With $1.5 million set aside in this year’s budget for extracurricular activities, the district employs 121 coaches, assistant coaches and advisors to work with the high school’s students in every aspect of campus life.

Assistant Principal Joe McCurdy, who oversees all non-athletic clubs at the high school, thinks there would likely be a reduction in the number of programs offered to students, but not quality.

“They will still be quality programs,” McCurdy said. “The clubs will just have less sponsored events, like going to ethnic restaurants, parades and Spanish dancing [for students].”

And though both the teachers’ union and administrators are at loggerheads over the extracurricular budget and the general budget, they've both said students shouldn't be made to suffer. 

“It's going to impact students,” Riordan said of the cuts. “We're not happy about it. It's not something we want to do, but we have to be fiscally responsible and make sure we are living within our means.”

When asked by Patch if it isn’t better to have a job these days, Rumel responded:  “Of course it is better to have a job, but there are so many other questions without answers.”

The D229 school board is set to meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, for its regular board meeting.

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