Group wants school board to stand up to unions

A newly formed group in McHenry County wants the Crystal Lake High School District 155 board to stand up to the teacher’s union as the two sides meet to renegotiate contracts in the coming months.

Members of Grafton, Algonquin, Nunda, Dorr Community Advocates (GANDCA) — formed after a January school board meeting where school leaders said they would increase the tax levy to meet expenses, said Chris Williams, a Lake in the Hills resident and founder of the group.

“It occurred to me that there is the potential for a $1.5 million deficit in the next school year,” Williams said. “The property values are going down and if they don’t increase the tax rate, they won’t meet expenses. Our home values are going down but we’ll still be paying the same amount of tax.”

Because the district will not operate in a deficit, Williams said, there are three options for the school board: reduce spending, increase revenue or taxes, or a combination of both.

Williams said the group is not against teachers or the union and said the purpose of the group is to be a voice for the community.

“Our group might be in the minority, so let’s find out,” Williams said. “It’s not about the teachers, it’s not about the union. It’s about taxpayers being tapped out.”

But the president of the teacher’s union, the District 155 Education Association, said historically the union has always bargained fair contracts with the board.

“History shows that we have never gone into negotiations and asked for more than the school district could afford.” Justin Huely said. “That’s why we are in a good financial place at a bad financial time. We certainly understand the economic climate that we are in and we don’t want to see the district go into deficit spending.”

Huely would not discuss ongoing contract negotiations.

One area in which the group would like to see the district reduce its expenses is in salaries and benefits, particularly for those staff, teachers and administrators that are making more than $100,000. The average salary and compensation for a full-time teacher is about $87,000.

“I was shocked at some of the salaries,” Williams said. “About 40 percent of the teachers are making more than $100,000, plus benefits are fully paid for and they’ll get 75 percent of their final year’s salary when they retire. That’s at the expense of our taxes.”

Scott Smith, a 17-year Crystal Lake resident who has three children that have graduated from the district and two others to follow, said the group wants the board to take a tough stance with the unions.

“There are a number of options for them to consider as they negotiate with the union to achieve spending cuts without impacting education, or eliminating programs or requiring a tax increase,” Smith said.

Some of the options the group has come up with include a 10-percent pay cut for those that make more than $100,000 a year, as well as increasing employee health insurance premiums to 50 percent. Both of those options would save the district about $2.5 million.

“They need to put those options on the table and then we’ll monitor how the school board does,” Smith said. “If they don’t do their job, then it’s time to vote in a new school board.”