Last words on Dist. 211 dispute

Editor's note: The following Fence Post letters regarding teachers negotiations in Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 were submitted prior to a contract deal reached late Thursday. Teachers had planned to strike Friday if no settlement had been reached.

Teachers, is it really worth it?

To the editor: Let me make sure I understand the situation. You can't be fired because you are "tenured." You average $84,000 a year to work nine months, even though not one school in your district has a passing grade according to the 2007 Report Card, and you have chosen the 1.3 percent differential as the issue for the first strike in the history of District 211 while public companies are laying people off by the thousands and raises are averaging 2.5 percent with no guaranteed level increases. You made no mention of a possible strike when the public (believing you would appreciate it and be reasonable with your demands going forward) passed a referendum request for your district.

Look, my children all had a wonderful educational experience at Conant High School. There are many dedicated teachers in the district who do an admiral job, but many of us in the private sector, looking at the above information, support the district's efforts to keep costs under control and simply cannot understand how you could choose this hill as the one you want to die on. A strike at this time will not only damage the image of your profession but will almost guarantee failure for any future referendum requested by District 211. Is it really worth it over 1.3 percent?

Greg Dawson

Schaumburg

Corporate view of 2.5% increase

To the editor: I cannot comprehend why teachers in District 211 will go on strike given an offer of 2.5 percent salary increase. They are lucky to be offered a 2.5 percent increase. Look at us in the corporate world: two years of no increase, health insurance co-pay gone up high, company always cutting costs and our jobs to go off-shore.

Teachers will argue that they spent hours after school to continue their work at home, e.g. checking homework, etc. but probably they didn't realize that in corporate America we are also working longer hours. I'm employed in a fairly big company and with continuous layoffs, people who left behind do double/triple jobs, always under pressure to finish the project and working more than 50 hours bringing work at home without overtime pay. I forgot to mention, we also buy our own supplies!

With teachers averaging the $84,000, they are well paid (compared to) most of the people working in corporate world, who like them have a master's degree, too. Working for nine months, with winter breaks, and a lot of holidays off, the salary is not that bad.

I have a couple of friends who took a forced retirement and went to teaching and were happy to their newfound career -- teaching! Less pressure compared when they were working in corporate America.

So bottom line, be glad that you are being offered even a 2.5 percent salary.

Emmie San Juan

Hoffman Estates

Think about taxpayers, too

To the editor: All right, enough is enough. Teachers of District 211, what are you thinking about? Oh wait, we know what you're thinking about ... MONEY. Money in your pockets. How much do you expect taxpayers to take? As it is, property taxes for some areas in Palatine are $10,000. Do you want homeowners to have to give up their homes because the taxes are so outrageous?

And what are you thinking when you suggest that construction workers, currently working on some of the schools in the district, should refuse to work on these projects if and when you go on strike? You want them to halt work until your strike is over. So if they decide, as union workers to strike one day, are you going to do the same for them? Most construction workers make a good salary. But the majority of them do not receive paid vacation, paid holidays, do not have tenure and are often at the mercy of the economy as to whether they even work. If there is a downturn in the economy they are often laid off.

You are a selfish group of people. You are offered a raise, a bigger one than many of us will receive, and it's not good enough. And you purport to be so concerned about your students. Well, if you strike, what about them? Nice message you're sending to these students ... greed is good, and if you don't get what you want, refuse to work.

Barbara Rowland

Palatine

Offer? Demand? Semantics matter

To the editor: Nov. 3's coverage of school District 211 teachers' strike vote follows a pattern in the media, that I feel, negatively portrays the teachers' negotiations.

Almost always the media presents the union as demanding, as your article on Nov. 3, stated, "The district's last publicized OFFER was 2.5 percent, while the union's last public DEMAND was 3.8 percent." We can talk extensively about how all workers, union and non-union, have benefited greatly because of the right to collective bargain in a free society, and how the high level of education and standard of living in the Northwest suburbs is due, greatly in part, to our unionized teachers.

Please let the readers make up their own minds with objective reporting; there is a big difference between an offer and a demand.

Michael Grenz

Arlington Heights

How much is too much?

To the editor: With all of the fuss coming from (Teachers Union President) John Braglia, I think people should know that the man who complains that the teachers make so little money in District 211 actually made $113,503 in 2006. It aggravates me as a taxpayer that people like Braglia could be so greedy and expect sympathy from the people paying their salary. The median household income in 2004 was $44,389, while the average teacher salary in District 211 was No. 1 in the state of Illinois at $80,082. The Daily Herald has covered this issue tremendously and I strongly encourage them to keep printing the facts; maybe one day these teachers will realize how good of a deal they actually have.

Michael Lewis

Palatine

Strike my support of future referendums

To the editor: I find it interesting that the day after the Daily Herald published the Web site address for the union, that site is down. Could it be they don't want to hear how irate those of us who voted for the referendum request are that the teachers want more money than can be afforded? They are lucky they work in an occupation that cannot be out-sourced overseas like so many of us. I will not back another referendum request again if there is a strike and I will work against one if it comes up.

David Krein

Schaumburg

Teachers union and 'new math'

To the editor: Unbeknownst to me the CPI (Consumer Price Index) went up by more than 20 percent the last three years. Although I checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics and they said 10 percent, I read an ad in the Herald on Nov. 4 from the teacher union at District 211 that said they were going on strike soon if they didn't get big raises. In fact the ad says the teachers had agreed previously to limit increases to less than the CPI for the last three years and that's why the strike was justified.

So just to make sure I understood what the teachers' union meant I decided to check what actually happened to District 211 teacher salaries over the three-year period 2003-2006. What I found out was that the 554 teachers who worked at Dist. 211 for that three-year period averaged 19.8 percent salary increases. Therefore it follows that the CPI must have been more than 20 percent. And by the way, 149 of those 554 teachers had increases in excess of $20,000.

Therefore either the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the teachers' union is wrong.

The other teacher salary issue is "average salary," a calculation that is virtually meaningless. In 2006 the average teacher salary at District 211 was $82,254 and in 2002 $85,438. Now do you really think that the teachers took a salary cut between 2002 and 2006? Of course not. The "average salary" figure is used by the unions because it is unrepresentative of the real increases being received by the teachers every year. The Teacher Retirement System, which tracks all salaries, states that the average year over year is 6.5 percent, which according to my three-year spreadsheet is exactly right.

The reason the average is unrepresentative is because when $150,000-per-year teachers retire they are replaced by younger teachers making perhaps $50,000 per year.

To paraphrase the home-schooled Abe Lincoln, the Illinois public schools are "of the teachers, by the teachers and for the teachers." You have nothing to say about it.

Bill Zettler

Mundelein

A raise for failing to exceed?

To the editor: The teachers of District 211 should be ashamed of themselves. They are among some of the highest-paid teachers in the state, and are demanding more money, while four of the five high schools in the district are on academic watch status. This means they have failed to make "adequate yearly progress" in the past four years. The percent of students that meets and exceeds standards is below the state average in all four of those schools. With an average teacher's salary in excess of $85,000, it's obscene that they feel they deserve an increase. If they think that failing to exceed the average is worthy of an increase, maybe they should try to find another employer that feels the same way. Good luck in finding one.

Michael Keller

Palatine

'Live within our means'

To the editor: The threat to strike from District 211 teachers really has me steamed!! I supported the referendum request and voted for responsible District 211 board members that would hold the line with my tax dollars.

I am proud of Mr. LeFevre and the District 211 board for trying to stay within the budget. A 2.5 percent base raise for the teachers is more than fair considering that more than 75 percent of the teachers would be receiving two or three times that amount when taking into account their step and lane increases.

Oh and their "give backs," as they say, regarding their health care! Give me a break!! All the rest of the working class people (that are paying the salaries) are contributing more for health insurance. You are getting a great deal now and have been offered a more than fair contract.

If teachers want more money they should work for it in the summer months that they have off! The claim from teachers has always been that they are underpaid, "not in it for the money" and that they love teaching children and shaping young minds. From where I am standing they are making plenty of money and have better benefits than most of the people within the suburban area that they teach in.

Live within OUR means! I will not vote for another referendum request to pay greedy teachers. Teachers stop stamping your feet, pull your fingers out of your ears and stop acting like a spoiled child. Grow up! Stop complaining and get back to educating instead of money grubbing.

Tina Huss

Palatine

Teachers, don't let students suffer

To the editor: As an alumnus of a District 211 high school, I know I am fortunate to have attended a high school of such high caliber. Now, as a third-year college student, I am able to excel academically and continue my love of sports and other activities as a result of the experiences allowed to me by my high school.

However, I now fear for my sibling, her friends and every other student at that very same high school. Recent rumors of teacher strikes in District 211 high schools threaten to diminish the dreams of many students who have worked anywhere to obtain their highest goals including academics and extra-curricular activities.

Three years ago the community was intimidated into voting for a referendum request that was claimed to be necessary for saving student activities and academic opportunities. Now those extra funds are the basis of a controversy for higher teacher salaries. First of all, the sixth-highest paid teachers in the state should have nothing to complain about. Think twice about less fortunate schools that do not even have safe campuses, let alone go home and live as well as many of you do. In the real world, people actually pay for benefits such as health care if they are lucky enough to be offered health care.

Furthermore, many of you claimed you were trying to pass the referendum request for the benefit of the students. I was there for the presentations and speeches. How about actually doing what is best for the students, as you so often claim? If the strike proceeds, the opportunities and dreams of your students will be crushed.

District 211 has one of the best reputations in the state of Illinois. Do not use the power you undeservingly possess to ruin the name of one of best school districts in the state by removing opportunities to succeed from your students by going on strike.

Jennifer Strykowski

Schaumburg and Tampa, Fla.

Answers to testing quandary

To the editor: As a former educator in District 211, I still take quite a bit of pride in the work done by its employees. That is why I get so frustrated when I hear about No Child Left Behind and that the teachers aren't doing their job because most of our students aren't "successful" in taking the PSAE. I also have several suggestions.

First of all, realize that students don't come into high school performing at their grade level and suddenly drop in their abilities. The grade 9-12 teachers are trying to play catch-up with students who were passed on from grade to grade in elementary school and junior high, even with poor skills. I'm not blaming the teachers on those levels. Social promotion has been a long-standing tradition. This is one tradition that needs to be broken. Why do we promote students who cannot meet the basic standards of reading and/or math for their grade level?

I also believe that there would be an immediate jump in PSAE scores if passing it were a requirement for graduation or would be included in their GPA.

Many of the students simply don't take it seriously, since they know they can earn their diploma without doing well on it.

High school teachers have very little time to work with their students and make up for past deficiencies. Don't heap the blame on them.

Gerardo Pagnani

Hoffman Estates

Common sense or economics?

To the editor: As a taxpayer in District 211, I wonder if Ms. Marcie Raymond (Fence Post, Nov. 5) received a passing grade in economics or common sense? If she thinks the young man who serviced her auto received all of the $163 she paid for the service, she is badly mistaken. The owner of the service station uses that payment to pay for rent or taxes on his property, which help pay her salary; he also pays for Social Security, workman's compensation, liability and unemployment insurance (because they are not guaranteed a job for life). The man probably earns about $10 to $15 an hour. He also doesn't get all of the perks the teachers receive. It's about time the district stood up and pulled a Ronald Reagan: Fire them all and start over with no, or limited sick days, step raises and no guaranteed job, like this man receives.

Norman Schwartz

Hoffman Estates