Why'd he do it? And what does this mean for other U-46 employees?

So Jose Torres, Elgin Area School District U-46's superintendent, decided to send back his $8,140 raise.

Why? And what implications does it have for the thousands of other district employees?

In a Wednesday morning interview, Torres said he'd been mulling over the idea - along with the recommendation for the school board to freeze administrative and nonunion salaries - since February.

The kicker, he said, came last weekend when he headed to Columbia University to speak at a Hechinger Institute Seminar about the fiscal and leadership challenges superintendents face with the current economy. As a panelist, he was required to submit the district's numbers on low-income students.

Roughly 51 percent of U-46 students now qualify for free and reduced-price lunches - an increase of 9 percent in the past year.

"To see that change within one year? That was news to me and (my raise) just didn't feel right," he said.

He informed the board of his decision in a closed-session meeting Monday, and informed staff on Tuesday, hours after the state's budget was signed, with massive cuts to education funding.

Torres said he understands that there are "unintended long-term consequence of these kinds of actions."

"We're working shoulder to shoulder with (union employees) who got raises this year," he said. "But life's not fair. We're all adults."

Contract negotiations for the district's 2,400 teachers will begin in a few months.

"It does create the context for those negotiations," he said. "It will have some influence. I'm not sure exactly where it will leave us."