Geneva school salaries not the highest, not the lowest, district says
Are Geneva teachers paid too much, too little, or just enough?
This week the school board released a teacher staffing and salary study, comparing Geneva to 19 other suburban districts. It is one of several comparative studies the board has requested as it prepares to make decisions about what to spend money on for the 2010-11 fiscal year. Other areas studied were transportation costs and administrative pay.
Geneva is neither highest nor lowest in any category compared, according to the report.
Districts included were Barrington 220, Batavia 101, Central 301, Carpentersville 300, DeKalb 428, East Aurora 131, Elgin U-46, Glen Ellyn 41, Glenbard 87, Indian Prairie 204, West Chicago 94, Kaneland 302, Naperville 203, Oswego 308, Yorkville 115, Wheaton Warrenville 200, Plainfield 202, St. Charles 303 and West Aurora 129. All are unit districts, except West Chicago (high school), Glen Ellyn (elementary) and Glenbard (high school).
It obtained the data from the Illinois State Board of Education; the Large Unit District Association; and the districts' Web sites. The data was that of the 2008-09 school year.
• Geneva ranked ninth in average teacher salary at $67,619. Glenbard 87 was No. 1 at $85,448, and Yorkville last, at $46,499. Pay in high-school-only districts tends to be higher than in elementary or unit districts.
• Geneva was 11th in pupil-to-teacher ratio for elementary students, at 17.9 per class. Oswego was the highest, at 21, and Kaneland and Burlington had the fewest, at 16.2.
For high school students, Geneva was the fifth-highest, with 20.1 per class. St. Charles and Burlington were the lowest, at 16.9 per class.
• Geneva ranked fourth in average teacher experience, at 12.9 years; Naperville 203 was tops with 13.3, and Yorkville last, with 7.6.
• Geneva was fifth in teachers with master's degrees, at 75 percent. Wheaton Warrenville was first, at 79.8 percent, and Yorkville lowest, with 29.2 percent. Teachers are generally paid more as they work toward, and obtain, advanced degrees.
The salary figures do not take in to account stipends for extra duties. They do include pension contributions to the Teachers Retirement System fund. It did not list which districts make such contributions, nor which districts only make partial contributions, but said the majority of the districts listed do contribute the full amount, 9.4 percent.
Like many other school districts, the Geneva board has to decide whether to cut expenses to avoid an operating-budget deficit. Board President Mary Stith noted the district may be in a better position than its neighbors, because it went through cuts in the early- to mid-2000s to recover from deficits that put it on the state financial watch list.
"We continued to not bring things back," Stith said.