McHenry County Blog

By a vote of 5-1-1 in front of about 70 teachers with no public comment allowed from the few taxpayers attending, the Huntley District 158 School Board approved almost a teachers’ contract almost assuredly putting the district in the red by the end of next June.

The only board member to vote “No” on the contract, Larry Snow, estimates this year’s increase to be 5.75%.

But when I pushed him about whether he had included the additional $62 a month in health care benefits (a $744 raise on top of everything else), he admitted he had not added in benefits to reach his estimate, so it may be higher.

Newly-appointed board member Tony Quagliano, a CPA, voted with four members of the Majority Five ruling coalition, while Majority Five member and School Board President Mike Skala, whose wife is a high school French teacher, abstained.

Quagliano predicted that the second raise would be 6.75%.

It was easy to predict early Wednesday morning that the teachers’ contract would be approved at the continued 7 AM meeting this morning.

After all, the teachers’ union had supported five of the current school members in their election efforts.

The hurriedly-prepared financial projections show other budget line items flatlining, which, as one whose first job was with the United State Bureau of the Budget, seems pretty unlikely.

Also ignored was the $1.3 million that must be repaid to the site and construction fund. This was extensively discussed in the early part of Tuesday night’s meeting on the need for a forensic audit, but seems to have been completely ignored in the financial projections provided the board and the public.

Also ignored is the cost of the forensic audit for this year.

So, once the public figures out that the school board has spent everything its increased taxes have brought in, it seems that a statement be Mike Skala will prove to be correct:

"There won’t be an ed fund referendum passed in my lifetime while I’m on the board."

Shawn Green, who promised to reveal corrections to what complaining taxpayers stated Tuesday night, did not do so Thursday morning.

Besides the quite generous raises, another political payback to the teachers’ union was the requirement that all teachers make a “fair share” payment to the union out of their salaries, whether they are union members or not. This affects about 75 teachers.

When asked why he voted against the contract, Snow said,

It’s an unfair contract.

It’s unfair to all of the teachers and the taxpayers.

Many teachers are receiving one-half of 1% raises for this year and one-half of 1% next year. How is this fair when dozens of high school teachers are getting 12% and 16% raises in two consecutive years?

It’s unfair to the parents who are going to face larger class sizes and higher registration fees, because this makes next year’s expenditure levels too high.

The district is now budgeting $463,000 for the 2007-08 school year for additional high school teachers, just in case current high school teachers don’t want the $6,750 in 2007-8 for teaching a sixth period class.

It’s unfair to the taxpayers who voted for the referendum thinking it would be “for the kids.”

Labels: Huntley School District 158, John Burkey, Larry Snow, Mike Skala, Shawn Green, Teacher Salaries, Tony Quagliano