"Facts" about Negotiations between Hinsdale High School Association and School Board

Teachers’ Proposal:

• Agrees to significant concessions in health benefits, increasing existing premiums significantly.
• Maintains a salary schedule, the industry standard in Illinois.
• Calls for a base salary schedule increase well below CPI.
• This base salary increase is less than recently settled contracts for Maine Township (2%) and CCSD 181 (1.75%).
• Base salary increase would be the lowest of any comparable district this year.
• Values experience and advanced education by including step and earned lane movement.
• The total teachers’ proposal – salary and benefits combined – requires less than 1% additional to the salary and benefits budget.

Board’s Proposal:

• Would increase existing insurance premiums by 229%.
• Would make Hinsdale the ONLY high school district in that state NOT utilizing a salary schedule.
• Teacher salary would NEVER increase in real inflation-adjusted dollars.
• Would significantly REDUCE the take-home pay of over 70% of teachers.
• Would result in the LOWEST four-year earnings for a new teacher in the area – from Proviso to Downers.
• Would NOT value experience or advanced education.
• The above tactics are not used in ANY other school district in Illinois – extreme by all objective standards.

Negotiations Facts:

• The teachers requested to start negotiations in September 2013.
• The Board was not prepared to negotiate with the teachers until February 2014, 142 days after teachers request to start the process.
• The Board did not offer a proposal until March 2014.
• The Board cancelled three negotiations sessions, one at the last minute.
• The Board cancelled an afternoon mediation session with no notice.
• As ground rules for mediation, both sides agreed not to discuss negotiation details in public.
• Board President Skoda and member Ed Corcoran held a press conference the day before a July mediation session despite the above ground rules.
• Skoda and Corcoran denied access to a fellow board member and members of the community at this press conference.
• Skoda and Corcoran sent out a costly error filled mailer without a public vote on the expense and without the knowledge of all board members.
• Board members Skoda and Manley knowingly attempted to manufacture controversy by publicly blaming teachers for an unrelated picture linked to a negotiations news story.

Relevant Facts:

• According to the Hinsdale District 86 website, the average teacher salary district 86 is $80,900, not $111,000 promoted by the Board.
• Hinsdale teacher salaries rank 16th in the state right behind Lyons Township and many other local high school districts, not “already at the top” as promoted by the Board.
• The Board proposal does not offer a CPI raise, only a fraction of CPI with no salary schedule. This effectively stagnates teacher salaries which will continually lose ground to inflation.
• Over the past five years, Hinsdale teachers’ salaries have not kept pace with CPI.
• The average teacher salary has declined in two of the past five years in inflation adjusted dollars.
• Teacher salaries/benefits account for approximately 50% of the district’s total budget, not 75-80% promoted by the Board.
• Spending on instruction is at its lowest level in the last four years.
• The percentage of total budget dedicated to teacher salary/benefits has remained relatively flat for years.
• District 86 has received the highest financial rating possible from the state for over a decade.
• District 86 financial reserves are projected to grow by millions of dollars in coming years.
• District 86 has the equivalent of eight months of operating financial reserves.
• The Board of Education projects budget surpluses far into the future.
• All public secondary school districts in Illinois use a salary schedule.
• According to ISBE 98% of all schools in Illinois do not use any type of merit pay based system to determine teacher salary increases.
• In 2008 all D86 teachers in the district were rated “Satisfactory” regardless of performance due to board intervention in evaluation.
• The Total School Tax Rate for D86 is the lowest of all surrounding districts.
• The teachers’ total proposal (salary/benefits) adds less than one-percent to the salary and benefits budget.

Effects upon the Tradition of Excellence:

• Multiple teaching candidates have not accepted job offers from District 86 so far this year.
• Department chairs are still struggling to fill teaching positions in early August.
• At least a half dozen candidates have had job offers rescinded after being deemed not good enough to be sent for Board approval.
• The current pool of teaching candidates have not been hired by any other school district.
• Record resignations: 19 resignations to date including almost all top administrators and 11 teachers in just 15 months.

from HHSTA

Commentary from Fred Klonsky: 

“Tea Party followers got elected with a low turnout to the Hinsdale District 86 board with an agenda of driving out experienced teachers. And it looks like that they are making headway. On the one hand, the Hinsdale teachers union is winning wide-spread support from a community that is concerned about the possibility of a decline in the quality of the historically high performing school district in the western Chicago suburbs. On the other, experienced staff are leaving in unprecedented numbers because of the uncertainty of what is to come. Official figures are hard to come by…”

--from Fred Klonsky’s Blog