River Trails teachers, administrators to get raises

The River Trails Elementary District 26 school board approved 2009-10 administrative salaries Tuesday night.

Superintendent Dane Delli said the new salaries include raises that comes out to about 3 percent for administrators.

This comes a couple weeks after the board approved a new contract for teachers. The one-year pact calls for no increase in teachers' base pay, but teachers will still see raises from so-called step increases. Therefore, teachers will see increases of 2.5 to 3 percent, Delli said.

Delli said unlike teachers, administrators are not on a salary schedule. Administration salary is based on performance, cost of living and other variables. He also noted that most administrators in District 26 are paid less than the median in Northern Cook County. This year's increases were up to 50 percent lower than increases in the past for some administrators.

Before the board approved the administrators' raises Tuesday night, teacher Luanne Hartje read a statement from the River Trails Education Association, the teachers union.

"In light of the substantial administrative increases given one year ago, we encourage the board to be responsible when considering fixed-cost increases to the administrators' salaries, especially in these tough economic times," she said.

Hartje said the step amount teachers will receive is $1,880 for the year, or $39.17 per week. But she said teachers who get their health insurance through the district will give up more than that because of higher out-of-pocket costs.

The one board member who voted against both the teacher contract and the administrative raises was Donna Johnson.

She said that, with the shape of the current economy, she doesn't think any raises should be given.

"The economic times right now don't call for people to be having raises," Johnson said.

She said she understands the 3 percent administrative raise covers cost of living, and she knows the administrators were sensitive to the current state of the economy. She said she thinks the administration is doing a good job, but the fact that the district is $1.4 million in debt means it's not the time to be giving out raises.

Delli said he doesn't think any new talks will start about 2010-11 teacher contracts until after the holidays.