Public to Dist. 111: Now not time for pay raises

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MINOOKA — Area residents want Minooka Community High School to tighten it’s belts as it sets forth to work on a budget for the 2009 -2010 school year.

Gene Briscoe, representing am informal group of builders, developers, and tradesman who met through Friends for Local Change, said that, as the board sets forth to work on the budget, he wants to remind everyone of the hardships area residents are facing.

“We’re really feeling the recession in this area,” Briscoe said. “Is this the time to be making increases in pay?”

His question is in response to the recent vote of the school board to increase the salaries of teachers and other staff.

Briscoe said the number of people collecting unemployment are highest in Grundy, Kendall, and Will counties, which are serviced by the high school.

“A lot of the unemployment comes from the housing industry, which is the worst it has been since the Great Depression,” he said. “The real estate taxes in the area are hurting people a lot."

Briscoe pointed out that taxes for the school district had gone up 395 percent from 2002 to 2008, while enrollment went up 162 percent.

School district resident Dave Ridener told the Minooka High School board Thursday night the private sector is decreasing expenditures by not giving pay increases and cutting upper management pay.

“We don’t mind you want to keep your educators,” he said. “But an additional 3.5 to 4 percent is a lot when the rest of us are going without raises.”

Russell Head said the board should consider the people paying for the staffs’ raises have had a zero percent increase of their own.

“Everyone we’ve dealt with at the high school is spectacular – I voted yes for the referendum – but from 2000 to 2008, the superintendent’s salary has increased by 62 percent,” Head said. “From 2000 to 2007, according to the U.S. Census, household income had zero percent increase.”

He said he personally is only making a small percentage of what he made in 2000 in the construction industry.

“Government workers are the only ones getting across-the-board increases,” he said.
As resident after resident rose to address the board, the common theme was clear, they didn’t feel the salary increases should have been approved.

Glenn Lindquist told the board he works two jobs and taxes are high enough as they are without additional spending.

“I just went to the bank and cut a check,” he said. “It was no fun cutting the check for my taxes and I’m going to have to do it again in September.”

He agreed with other residents when he said it was not time for a pay increase within the schools.
“A tax reduction is more in order than pay raises,” he said.

Board President Larry Larson told the residents the board has kept it’s promise to keep the tax rate at $2.34 and, if it could lower the rate, it would.

Larson said 95 percent of the school’s revenue came from local taxes.

It was pointed out that, while the tax rate didn’t increase, the EAV on the homes did, which still meant the residents are paying more money to the district.

“I’m not sure I can say anything to the call other than I am listening,” Superintendent Dr. Dave Middleton said. “I’m cognizant of the times we are in and we will approach the budget with a sharper pencil.”

As the board sought approval of the 2009-2010 tentative budget, board member Chris Balkema raised concerns that appeared to mirror those of the residents.

He asked about an additional $1.2 million that was being spent to add air conditioning to the remainder of Central Campus.

“I don’t agree with the air conditioning,” Balkema said. “For some reason, students have managed without it for 30 years. If you look at the grand scheme of things, this is not the time to put in air conditioning at the taxpayers’ expense.”

Balkema said he understood it was voted on before he came on the board, but he disagreed with the timing.

He said he feels savings can be found within the district.

“I think the board has told the administration to hold steady and we’ve never asked them to reduce spending,” he said.

Balkema doesn’t agree with the $500,000 increase for salaries, either.

Before voting to approve the tentative budget, which is required by law for the district to pay bills in July, Balkema said he wanted to see in writing an amendment to the vote asking the administrators to look for ways to save money.

“I want to challenge the good folks to try to cut out 5 to 10 percent, just as we did in transportation, where we cut out 19 percent without the students suffering,” he said.

After seeing an exorbitant bill from their contracted bus company for routes that provided transportation of special education children to their required schools, the board looked into the matter to see if it could cut costs.

There was a 190 percent increase in students requiring busing, which took 36 students to 11 different out-of-district sites. The district estimated that would cost $600,000 for the 2008-2009 school year.

The district will now take back 10 of the 11 routes and purchase new vehicles with required equipment for an estimated savings of $400,000, according to Balkema.

Larson said the district has also been conservative in hiring teachers.

“We hired three teachers versus six to service the additional 125 students,” Larson said.

The board voted to have administration look for ways to cut costs and bring a plan back to the Finance Committee prior to the final budget vote in September. Administrators were also asked to examine consequences the cuts would have on the students so the board could make an educated decision.