Cary Teachers' Union Responds To District 26

The teachers of Cary are both disappointed and saddened by the board of education's approach to negotiations. 

We feel strongly that the board of education has again put out information not to inform the public, but rather to paint the teachers as the reason for the district’s financial crisis. 

We would like to respond.

We did not create this situation. The board of education stated at the June 26 meeting that the fiscal year 2012 budget is balanced.

The board of education approved that budget in which Mrs. Ferrier included raises for the teachers.   

Although the Cary teachers’ CEA’s most recent offer focused on language revisions and not t financial movement, previous offers did reflect substantial monetary concessions by the teachers in both salary and benefits.

Our latest proposal offered:

*  Three Year Contract

*  Year 1 and 2 teachers would take a hard freeze, no step down on salary table. 3rd year is a soft freeze, so step down vertically would be given.

*  Teacher Retirement System (TRS), which is in place of the private sector’s Social Security, remains the same as in current contract, Board pays 4.7% and teacher pays 5.7%. We do not receive Social Security.

*  Teachers would now pay 15% of single health insurance for Year 1 and 2. Year 3, single health insurance would be paid 100% by the Board as in current contract. 

*  Length of student school day increased by 15 minutes in year 1 and 2. As a result of this, students would realize 7.9 additional days of instruction per year. 

Then, in year 3, another 24 minutes would be added to the student school day.  

We also proposed a plan for year 3 which brought back specials taught by highly qualified specials teachers.  Year 3 minutes equate to an additional 11.6 days of instruction.

 When the board explained the reductions, they stated that 75 out of approximately 230 teachers were released (32%).

They then stated that administration was also reduced.  What they failed to mention was that only one administrator’s position was cut which was due to the closing of Maplewood.

This year there has been a net loss of ZERO administrators, as one principal was released, but an assistant principal was added. 

The community needs to know that after these cuts, the budget was balanced.  Teacher concessions asked for by the board of education were to be used to reduce the debt. 

The board of education is not recognizing the devastating effects of increased class size and program cuts already put into place.  

This negatively affects student learning, instructional delivery, and school climate. The board of education does not yet have a plan in place which addresses any of these issues.

The board continues to use inflammatory and misleading information when explaining teacher salaries.  They chose to use an average teacher’s salary, after having released most of the less experienced/less educated teachers.

94 percent of the the remaining teachers have advanced degrees and many years of experience which places them at the bottom of the salary schedule.

It would stand to reason that the average would be higher, although, the individual teacher is not making more than 93% of the teachers in the area, as stated by the Board.

For teachers who have elected to retire, the end of career pay increase is a common practice in most teacher contracts throughout the entire state of Illinois. 

This is a form of deferred compensation. 

When as a teacher in Cary with a Master’s degree reaches year 19, they no longer receive the ‘steps” given to teachers with 0-18 years. Instead they receive a 1% increase.  

A teacher in Cary with 35 years of experience will have only received 1% increases for their last 16 years. Due to adversarial nature of the current BOE, many teachers who would love to continue teaching feel forced into retirement.   

With the Board’s current proposal, those teachers that remain in District 26 will see their take home pay reduced by as much as 42 percent.

Cary teachers are looking forward to providing a positive, successful 2011-2012 school year.  It is important for families to know that our goal is to do everything possible to continue to provide a quality education for each and every child.

As we move forward, we will continue to update district 26 stakeholders through our website: http://sites.google.com/site/cary26teachers/home

We are sincerely appreciative of the tremendous support we have received.  We encourage the community to continue to examine the issues and information being presented.   

(This is article was submitted by Chris Maher of the Cary Education Association negotiating team)