Dist. 204 union: Principal raises could have gone to keep teachers

Indian Prairie Unit District 204's teachers union is angry over the district's decision late Monday to approve a $56,000 pay increase for 13 elementary school principals.

Less than a month ago, the 2,170-member teachers union accepted a two-year contract that includes a total freeze on salaries, step increases and lane changes.

"We're beyond upset," said Union President Val Dranias. "We took a hard freeze and we're being austere and everything else around here and then they very easily spend $56,000."

Dranias said $56,000 would have paid for another full-time teacher and one part-time position to be brought back from the 145 teachers released in March.

According to confidential memos obtained by the Daily Herald, 13 elementary school principals with the district less than 10 years received an approximate 1 percent increase on top of the 3.87 percent increase they got for this school year. The move was the second phase of a plan to line up salaries to years of experience and realign salaries to those driven by new administrators hired in 2008.

Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Nancy Valenta said she felt it was important to honor the commitment made by former Superintendent Stephen Daeschner's administration, in 2008, to bring the salaries in line. With the adjustments the average salary of the 13 principals, with between two and nine years of experience, is $108,587.

"Our average salary for these positions is consistently about 25 percent less than our comparable districts like (Naperville) District 203 and Wheaton Warrenville (District 200), Valenta said. "It's the teachers union's responsibility to look out for the teachers. It's mine to look out for the administrators."

That rationale was not acceptable to Dranias, who questioned how a board in 2010 can honor a commitment by a previous administration.

"2010 is not 2008," she said. "If the teachers had signed a multiyear agreement which included pay raises, there would have been clamoring for the contract to be reopened and for the teachers to take a freeze to show their fiscal responsibility in an economic crisis."

Also, the administrators' raises almost weren't aired in public during Monday's night's school board meeting. The raises were on the board's consent agenda, in which matters are approved by a voice vote with no discussion. Valenta said she had no intention of keeping the deal hidden, but said she merely didn't think it would cause any controversy.

If the salary item hadn't been called up for discussion by board member Dawn DeSart, Dranias said she would have never known about it.

"I may have seen it in the fall when I pull everyone's salaries to ensure proper payments are being made," Dranias said. "But I also may not have seen it because I don't represent the principals."

It really doesn't matter whether Dranias would have seen it all, Valenta said because the $56,000 was not money the district was bargaining with at the time.

"That's a whole separate fund," she said.