U-46 superintendent turns down raise, encourages other to follow suit

Elgin Area School District U-46 Superintendent Jose Torres has turned down his recent raise and is recommending that other nonunion employees and district administrators do the same.

Torres informed his staff of his decision in a Tuesday night e-mail, district spokesman Tony Sanders said.

The e-mail cited the tough economy and assured that his recommendation to freeze administrators' salaries had nothing to do with performance - but would save the district roughly $1.5 million.

"While this savings will not fix our fundamental revenue problems, it will help," Torres wrote.

Torres initially accepted a raise and contract extension from the school board June 22.

Under the contract, which runs through 2014, Torres would have made $228,140 this year - a 3.7 percent increase from last year's $220,000 salary. His annual raises are tied to the average annual raises in the teachers' contract.

The new salary was effective July 1.

Torres said he could not justify the salary bump after seeing large numbers of community members out of jobs and struggling to pay their bills.

Over the past several months Torres repeatedly has outlined a bleak fiscal picture for the 41,000-student district.

Next year's tentative $427 million budget - a 1.4 percent increase over this year - includes a $17 million increase in negotiated salaries and benefits for union employees. To balance out that increase, the district eliminated the equivalent of 350 full-time positions.

"Regarding next year's budget, everything is on the table - including the table," Torres said in February.

Union President Tim Davis called Torres' move "a reflection of the situation we find ourselves in."

Torres had raised the issue of pay cuts in an e-mail to union leaders this spring, but no official talks developed.

There's a difference between cutting a top administrator's pay and a starting teacher's, Davis said.

"If you're already making a couple hundred thousand a year, it's not going to have as much of an impact as someone who's just starting out," he said.

U-46 teachers are in the midst of the three-year contract that expires in August 2010. Negotiations for a new deal likely will likely begin this spring, Davis said.

"There are many factors that could impact bargaining. Certainly (Torres' decision) might be one of them," he said. "We won't know until we get to the table."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=308728">Why'd he do it? And what does this mean for other U-46 employees?<span class="date"> [7/22/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>