Kaneland teachers give up raises to save jobs

Kaneland school teachers have postponed their raises for the 2010-11 school year - a move that is expected to save the district $1.1 million.

It also saves the jobs of the equivalent of 110 full-time workers.

And it restores middle and high school clubs, sports and other activities it cut in March when it was cutting the 2010-11 budget to try to avoid running a deficit.

The move was announced at the beginning of a board meeting during which the board was due to discuss a second round of budget cuts, based on potential loss of state aid.

"We will skip (agenda item) H6 because we no longer have Phase II budget reductions," a happy school board President Lisa Wiet said.

The teachers were due to get a 5.6 percent raise in the last year of a three-year contract. The board asked in the fall if teachers were willing to forgo that raise, but the union voted in January against even discussing it.

One point that rankled union leaders was the board made the request public before telling the union.

The agreement extends the contract another year and pushes the 2010-11 raise to 2012.

In March, the district gave layoff notices to the full-time equivalent of 110 certified staff members, nearly 30 percent. The certified staff includes teachers, school psychologists, librarians, school nurses, reading specialists and social workers.

The district estimated another 30 teaching positions would have been lost in a second phase of cuts.

All the workers who received layoff notices in March will be rehired, except for a few the district does not want back because of inadequate performance.

If the district receives more money from the state than initially expected in 2010-11, the teachers will receive part of that surplus in proportion to what they gave up in raises.

The union approved the measure Sunday.

"I won't second-guess the (union) decision of the first time," said Lynn McHenry, the union negotiator. "We made the best decision for our interests at the time."

It wasn't until February that word started coming out of Springfield that the state was considering reducing aid to local school districts. The Kaneland school board, already working on budget cuts of more than $2.2 million, estimated that in the worst-case scenario, it would need to cut $2.6 million more, so it laid off enough teachers to cover that possibility.