Other contracts could affect District 300 talks

One of the few things candidates for the Community Unit District 300 school board could agree on during the recent campaign was the need for fiscal restraint.

Many specifically noted that most of the district's expenses are personnel costs - salary and benefits - and called for a conservative teachers' contract.

The district's current deal with its teachers expires at the end of the 2009-10 school year, and negotiations should be underway by early 2010.

Top district and union officials are no doubt watching the outcome of teacher contract talks throughout the suburbs, which have yielded some interesting results.

I was surprised to read most recently about Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128, where teachers agreed to a contract with pay raises of 0.37 percent, 1 percent and 1.5 percent in years one, two and three of the deal, respectively.

The contract reflects the realities of the global, national and suburban economies. Although the increases seem modest compared to the typical raises, they are large when you consider a few facts:

• Tax cap districts in Illinois face an increase in local tax revenue - their main source of funding - of only 0.1 percent next year, the rate of inflation.

• Reuters reported this month that 40 percent of U.S. firms plan to freeze pay this year, while the figure is 25 percent globally.

• The Chicago Tribune reported this month that some firms are choosing to cut pay rather than layoff workers.

Still, the District 128 deal can fairly be called a conservative contract. District 300 officials could use District 128's contract to try to get teachers to agree to modest increases in coming years.

District 300 might be able to sweeten the deal with an interesting provision in the District 128 contract that allows the district and teachers to revisit the increases each year and revise them depending on the economic climate.

District 300 could also go the route of Indian Prairie Unit District 204, which approved a one-year contract this month that gives teachers an average raise of 3.87 percent.

Union officials in District 300 could consider settling for a relatively modest increase in the 2010-11 school year in exchange for having the opportunity to renegotiate in a year's time.

Indian Prairie's contract talks also had an interesting wrinkle: District 204's superintendent and 13 other administrators will get a 1 percent salary hike, instead of the 3.87 percent teachers will receive.

Minimal increases or pay freezes for administrators could be a way for District 300 to show good faith while asking teachers to limit increases in their salary and benefits.

Or District 300 could follow the lead of Huntley Unit District 158 in seeking raises tied to inflation. District 158's teachers balked at that offer, instead settling for increases of 5.25 percent each year.

Let's hope economic realities and the example of other suburban districts will make such an offer more attractive when District 300's negotiating teams start talks next year.