Grayslake teachers accept lower raises

Grayslake Elementary District 46 teachers have agreed to contract concessions in an effort to help bridge a $2.27 million budget gap projected for the 2010-11 school year.

District 46 Superintendent Ellen Correll announced at a meeting Wednesday night that instructors have agreed to an average raise of 2.75 percent instead of the originally scheduled 4 percent hike. The 2.75 percent average would include base salary and standard step increases.

"I think that says a lot for the staff of District 46," board member Karen Weinert said.

Correll said the teachers union contract renegotiation also would include a freeze on the stipends paid for various tasks. She said more details about the union givebacks for the teachers and other employees would come in a formal announcement either today or Friday.

School officials announced in February that negotiations were under way with the Grayslake Federation of Teachers union. The teachers struck a three-year deal in 2008 that would have ended with the 4 percent average raise.

"They really came through," District 46 board member Michael Linder said of the employee unions. "They didn't have to."

No one from the teachers union spoke in public at Wednesday's meeting.

District 46 officials have been discussing ways to fill the expected $2.27 million budget hole this year, with many ideas surfacing at meetings of an advisory task force that includes employees, parents and administrators.

Freezing administrator salaries for the 2010-11 academic year was one of the ideas placed on the table. Another idea floated was increasing student breakfast and lunch prices by 25 cents to generate an extra $50,000 annually.

Correll said at least $2.4 million in cuts and revenue-generators have been identified. Formal school board action is expected April 28.

We will be, I think, in pretty good shape even if the state doesn't come up with what we need," Correll said.

Like other suburban school systems, District 46 is in a financial jam because of a consumer price index, or inflation rate, that's lower than what officials have grown to expect. CPI is what schools use to get cash from a property tax levy each year.

Federal officials announced in January the 2009 consumer price index was 2.7 percent.