It's my understanding that all the rules, regulations, and laws are stacked in the Unions favor. The Unions strong arm tactics are to wear the BOE down and make false claims against them. Welcome to Illinois folks!

Dear GEA
If you choose to strike and are choosing not to work then why should the district pay for your health benefits? When you CHOOSE to walk off the job you CHOOSE to lose your perks. How is that unfair labor practice? How is that intimidation?

Your organization is so dysfunctional and out of touch with reality that it is baffling to believe you represent a group that has been honored with the privilege of educating our youth. We have apparently entered crazyland.

I cannot do much to protest this other then write letters to the board, but I can do one thing...you just lost one of your dedicated parent volunteers. Oh wait, you probably won't even notice all the years I have spent giving my time in your classrooms and for PTO activities because there are hundreds of parents like me that make your life easy and you also take for granted. I am so done with you.

All comments to the BOE are confidential so you are able to provide your name and address.

I am disappointed that the BOE has had to wait to the twelfth hour to try and get a deal. While many want to point fingers at the teachers, the BOE up until this past week has only met with the teachers union 3 times in the past 60 days. There were plenty of other opportunities to meet throughout the summer. The both can point fingers saying they were available but the bottom line is meeting only 3 times is totally unrealistic in securing any type of deal for either party. Now they have to negotiate today (Sunday) and risk all students futures because the BOE or the GEA didn't insist on getting a deal done during this past summer. I am very disappointed the BOE let it drag on this long.

Hi Sean - I'm not going to attack you, but I will say the GEA wants to keep the 'step' raises in place which guarantee raises every year just for showing up. (That's how we end up with librarians and drivers ed teachers making over 100k) ...and Geneva isn't a desirable communiyt because of our top-notch drivers ed program.

Also, the GEA wants to keep 'pension spiking'. Giving teachers 19% pay raises in the 3 years prior to retirement to sweeten their pensions. That doesn't do a thing to add value to the education process.

The old union model is unsustainable, Sean

Sean, I don't think the issue is strictly pay at this point in the negotiations, I believe it has to do with step and lane increases and pension spiking.

Sean, the GEA also wants to include a "fair share" clause that would force teachers who do not belong to the union ( that, in itself is a big, positive step forward for our district) pay a fee to the union...because they benefit from union activity. I say "Hurray" for those teachers who stood up and said that they will not join. In the real world it's called being a free agent.
Our BOE has said that it will absolutely not allow that fee. I think this is another huge sticking point in the negotiations.
Hope this helps clarify.

T-
I agree with your point.

The part about this whole process that has been frustrating to me is the sense of using the $30 million surplus to basically increase fixed costs for the future, but positioning it as a one time adjustment. The people who have made that agrument assume we have no understanding of public finance, taxation, and costs.

The other part is to try to tie it into saying that without change, it will lead to a mass exodus and no new comers. I just do not believe that would be the case.

And lastly, I am just opposed to spiking salaries for the benefit of providing tax-payer funded pensions that are higher already than private sector equivilent positions (yes, there are similar positions in private sector). I have read some explanations that make sense - to provide an incentive for higher paid teachers to choose reitrement now - but it should not be an ongoing program - it should be a temporary offer, to provide a total cost savings -

The GEA has failed to demonstrate to me anything that indicates that this is about anyone other than themselves. That is the most disheartening aspect - the arguments all point to a surplus of funds, a desire for more income, arguments that say that there would be an exodus if their wishes are not all met, and threats if all wishes are not met. On top of that, the press releases they send are false and misleading.

The politics education have left a stench in the community.

Dear Mr. Thomas Teacher,
I do wonder why not disclose your full name? Perhaps if you attended the School Board meetings you will find the answer to your questions. And if spending was under control perhaps Geneva taxpayers would not be on the hook for $300 Million of approximate debt. Do you reside here in Geneva?

Thomas,
I'm wondering why you bring this up. You say you are an administrator, so you should know the schedule of elections. Once again, you try to deflect the accusations of wrongdoing to the board or the citizens. Nice try, but, like I've said before, I think Geneva is smarter than that.

Beth Ward,
I don't know when I ever identified myself as an administrator unless you are referring to your theory that I am one of several aliases that Tom Fortune uses who is also apparently your neighbor who you also like to comment on about his leaf gathering abilities. Thankfully I am none of those people you claim me to be but they do have my condolences.

Well, Thomas it answers the question...you don't reside here in Geneva.

Another, little known fact is that the union dictates the salary that the district can offer a new hire. Let's say a very qualified teacher (master's in special ed, dual language with coaching experience) were to move here. The district would have to hire him/her at the designated step and lane salary....no less. If the budget doesn't allow for the union salary...that teacher won't be hired.
Even if this teacher said, "I will work here for the starting salary of a new, out-of-college teacher, the district could not negotiate with that teacher.
Makes you wonder if we've been passing up some wonderful, talented teachers, while the tenured dead wood rests on their laurels.

She is a teacher. Of course she is going to support the gravy train. She is going to retire and get the benefit of the pension spiking. Has anyone spoken publicly to support the union and teachers who is not a teacher? Maybe then I will listen.

Non-tenured teachers are evaluated every year and tenured teachers every other year by their building administrators. If an administrator deems a non-tenured teacher unsatisfactory they may dismiss them. If it's a tenured teacher then a system is put in place to bring that teacher up to standards. If the teacher fails to make progress then they may be dismissed. The union makes sure that due process is followed. This ensures the teacher is not dismissed due to a disgruntled parent or board member or because of a clash of personalities with the administrator. Because of new laws and changes in the evaluation this year, the ability to dismiss a teacher due to professional reasons has become easier. Your accusations about tenure are false. But evidently you and others here feel that if you just keep repeating it, it must make it so. It didn't work for Mitt and it doesn't work for you. Stop the lies please.

The Truth since you seem to have an abundance of knowledge on tenure. How many tenured teachers have been dismissed?

OK, The Truth - I apologize. I did not MEAN to make a false statement. You called me on it, I read your post, and I did some additional research. YOU ARE CORRECT REGARDING TENURE AND DISMISSAL. I was overzealous and I did misstate my case. Please allow me to rephrase, based upon your clarifications and some reading I've done, and see if I better understand things.

A teacher without tenure that is found to be unsatisfactory by an administrator may be dismissed, and that would be within a year of when they are deemed to perform in a sub-par fashion, as they are evaluated yearly. It is an employee at will situation.

A teacher with tenure (I believe that is after 4 years?) is given a performance review every 2 years. Let us say the teacher is rated as unsatisfactory. Within 30 days a “remediation plan” must be developed to correct the deficiencies. They are now evaluated and rated once every 30 days during the 90 school day remediation period. Then a final evaluation is issued and administered 10 days after the conclusion of the remediation plan.

(So I do apologize. Let me affirm, as I have written above, that there DOES EXIST a "process" whereby a tenured teacher that is found to be unsatisfactory "can be" dismissed.)

BUT, historically the reality of the situation is, once a teacher receives tenure, the probability of said teacher actually being dismissed for any reason short of endangerment or gross negligence toward students is highly unlikely.

Assume we have gone through the procedures to the point of the final evaluation. If the teacher is rated satisfactory at the end of the regular evaluation schedule, he or she is returned to the regular evaluation schedule.

HOWEVER, If the rating is still unsatisfactory at the end of the remediation period, the teacher MUST BE DISMISSED (emphasis added) , subject to the protections given under appropriate dismissal statutes.

Once dismissed the teacher has 10 days in which to request that a hearing be scheduled.

The procedures, the time and costs involved for this district to bring such a case through the subsequent hearing process are not taken lightly. Each side has the right to call witnesses and present documentary evidence. Both sides have a right to be represented by counsel and to cross-examine each other’s witnesses. All testimony is taken under oath and transcribed. All this in the hope to finally reach a conclusion wherein the dismissal is affirmed is typically outweighed by the easier solution of just reassigning said teacher to a position where they are are less likely to 'cause difficulties'.

Would that be a more accurate assessment of the situation?

@ The Truth. From 1990 to 2008, only 142 tenured teachers were dismissed in Illinois out of a total of approximately 138,000 public school teachers in the state for any given year. This is a .1% dismissal rate. It is nearly impossible to get a tenured teacher dismissed. I can only imagine the quality and character of the 142 who were let go, and the NEA and IEA needless to say fought each charge regardless of the evidence of inadequacy or even worse. Teachers unions are not concerned about children. They are paid dues to represent the interests of teachers. In Geneva, my son has had two lousy teachers, one slightly above average teacher, and one excellent teacher in his four years in District 304. So far, I do not consider District 304's average to be contributing to the GEA's argument for more pay.

Thank you Mr. Lassiter but please could you cite your reference of data? Thank you.

Doug did you ever think to consider that the 105,000 was achieved by a lot of two income families? Lets take two teachers (husband and wife) who live in Geneva and make the average teacher's salary of 72,000. As combined they make 144,000 which is well above 105,000. That is just simple math.

According to the district salaries there is a husband and wife team that pull in almost $250,000 combined. Is that not good enough?

Doug, you can't reason with a crazy person. No matter what statistics you show them.

The Truth that is right. We are all crazy if we don't support the union. Typical arguments because you can't think of anything that makes sense.

Also, Mr. Lassiter does this include income of the retired avg family as there are a % of retired senior citizens on fixed income and I wonder where that fits in your data sample.

Kathy according to Mr. Kent Mutchler from a Freedon of Information Act request dated 11/2/12 there are 140 teachers within the Geneva School District boundaries. However, this stat did not mention whether they were all property tax contributors.

You presented part of the facts. You made a comparison of one salary to household income in attempt to make the salary look lower. Give us all of the stats. How many two income families are in Geneva? In my neighborhood alone most of the households are two income.

You know what you were doing. Why don't you play nice.

GRyan...As much as I agree...why would you post that on this blog? Kind of random.

Because Mr. Fortune it is their day to give thanks and perhaps there are folks on this blog who have loved ones in the military or have friends in the military and I want to thank them. Let us not forget their service to us and our nation. With all this blogging I did not want them to go unnoticed.

Fortune doesn't understand why because all he cares about is himself. I think it's nice that you posted that and it's a reminder of those who fought and sometimes gave their lives for our freedom...you know...like when we can all feel free to post our personal opinions on here!

Julie, If you do go meet him, I'd take some backup. He'll be the one in the green shirt!
Thank you to all of the board member's families, who have given up time with their moms, dads, wives, husbands for weeks. This is really beyond what anyone
can expect from an unpaid volunteer. It's Sunday night, and I bet they'd love to be
spending some family time together...not meeting with the GEA. I appreciate your sacrifice!

I'm bringing a Uhaul...

And I'm bringing Jeff Ward.

You go on strike, only for a moment, and the damage's done
Step and Lane, pass before my eyes, right into history

Dust in the wind, GEA is dust in the wind
Same old song, asking for increases quite incessantly
All they do is, lead their flock to ruin, though they refuse to see

Dust in the wind, GEA is dust in the wind

Don't walk out, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, all your striking won't a better deal buy

Dust in the wind, GEA is dust in the wind

How many green-shirted pickets must a student walk by
Before you call it off?
How many lanes must a teacher cross
Before we say that’s enough?
Yes, how many steps must the public pay for
Before they're forever banned ?
The answer taxpayer is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many sick days can be given
Before it's ridiculous?
Yes, how many years can some people teach
Before they're allowed to collect a pension?
Yes, how many times can a parent turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see ?
The answer taxpayer is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many times must a 6% raise be given
Before it can bankrupt a town?
Yes, how much money must someone have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many strike days will it take till he knows
That many people have lost respect for him?
The answer taxpayer is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

@Magnus. <clap, clap, clap>

Thank you.