Jeanne Milsap has penned an informative and well-written report on cost saving measures suggested by the Citizens Finance Committee. The article includes the supporting analysis for the recommendations, and omits the personal opinions of the author.
Some of the recommendations, such as not replacing the nurse's aid and social worker, fall into the no-brainer category and should be adopted by the District 54 board. The other recommendations also merit serious consideration. $14,000 per year in health insurance benefits seems excessive given the financial condition of the district, and compared to the $4,000 spent by the Saratoga school district.
Controlling costs and living within your means requires setting priorities and making difficult and sometimes unpopular choices. That is what taxpayers have to do. We should expect no less from the school board.
I suspect the tone and content of the article would have been very different had it been written by Mike Farrell.
Look up teachers salaries
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35 comments:
Good to see you back Sledge. Tell your buddy to wake up and get to work. These blogs have helped reduce attorney bills and brought a lot of attention to matters that people would not have been aware of other wise. This isn't Cicero and our politicians shouldn't act like it is. Let's keep a thumb on them.
I agree with your observation. Too ofte School Superintendents have a "gimme attitude" all they want is more money, for themselves and the school system, but do not focus on cost saving measures like year round schools. Hopefully the new board has some common sense. Maybe they could rent room at the White Oak School.
It's obvious why only 60% of the clasrooms are being utilized. Each class has 30 students! How can any one really teach or learn with 30 students in a class? All the classrooms would be needed if the student teacher ratio was what it is suppose to be! Thew classes are overcrowed because we do not have enough teachers!
Judging from my tax bill, we have too many teachers, and we are paying them too much.
Is it true? A graduate of MCHS who has been tagged as a golden boy about our town has entered a substance abuse program. Hats off to the Morris Herald for actually covering this, given the potential for the who's who to say it isn't so. And actually, good luck to the young man going for treatment...at least you admitted your problem unlike most of the local yokals.
Sometimes you can't mince words --- anonymous 8/10 2:16 pm is a liar! THERE IS NOT ONE CLASS AT WHITE OAK WITH 30 or MORE STUDENTS! A few had 26. Most have about 21 students. Many if not most classes have teachers, assistant teachers, and student teachers. Who's lying, the 2006-2007 White Oak yearbook, or 2:16 pm? I know, and you should also.
2:16 P.M. even if there were 30 kids in a class, so what? My seventh grade class at Coal City had 52 students. From that class we have judges, lawyers, CPA's, PhD's, doctors, politicians, professors, multimillionares, real estate tycoons, government officials in Wash, D.C., etc., etc. It's more about how cushy a job the teacher wants, how light a workload. The job can get done with 30 kids in a class, or even 52
Loaf pincher...you cannot look at last year's yearbook to see how many kids are in this year's classes. Registration was held last Thursday and the final totals will not be known until that last new child walks through the doors. I THINK that 4th and 5th grades are at the 30 mark now but I will call the school to verify this on Monday. As for saving on insurance costs, many schools are going to just single coverage for the newly hired people to save money and I believe that this has been talked about by the last board and this board. This board will have the opportunity to change things during contract negotiations. If Dist. 54's family coverage is $14,000, yes that is high. Good insurance coverage is costly. It is also no secret that Saratoga's insurance is less than stellar, thus the low cost...that's just a statement, not an indictment. It is my sincere hope that this board will be able to find decent coverage for a lower price. Help them out, Craig!
Welcome back Sledgehammer. Things have been pretty boring around here! Debi Wright
Since 5:17 is only concerned with their tax bill I suggest we revert to a one room school house with one teacher for all the children. Then they'll be happy because their tax bill will be less. Quality education? That's the childrens problem, right? Loaf... Don't look at last years yearbook; that's old news. Check out the registration numbers that are coming in for this year with fewer teachers and see the real numbers!
Controlling taxes and spending are an important consideration. Quality education is important, but if the money isn't there, it should be spent. Period.
Our local government officials seem to overlook this concept. Just look at the new city Taj-Ma-Hall as an example. I will not again vote for any mayor or alderman who supports that boondoggle.
The White Oak school should be renamed the White Elepahant school. It is a monument to wasteful spending and irresponsible oversight.
The Kids2000 Committee already completed the feasibility study the Finance Committee wants 8 years ago. We researched and projected the demands of a growing community and a modern education with higher expectations. We evaluated the maintenance expenses of the existing structures, and the budget ramifications of consolidation. Morris 54 was not as fortunate as Saratoga 60c. Saratoga had a relatively modern building with plenty of open area for expansion. Saratoga has the luxury of higher tax rates for education and a tax base growing faster than the student population. Morris 54 lacked all of these aspects. The anticipated repairs to bring Center and Franklin schools current with today's Illinois Life Safety school code would have cost almost as much as the new building. Additionally the school has room to expand in the future should it become warranted. The entire White Oak building was built for only a little more than the current, not to mention past, expansions at Saratoga. Kids2000 made the correct assumptions and the voters approved the plan by nearly 3:1. That's why the Morris 54 schools are free of any lead pipes, or asbestos. We also have not lost any school days due to an undetected fire.
"Each class has 30 students!", a quote from 2:16. They know this statement is inaccurate, but disseminated it anyway. Shame.
Does the Mayor have a brother and does anyone know what he does for a living?
Some of the teachers at Dist. 54 are paid over $85,000 a year, plus $14,000 a year in health benefits, plus an extremely generous retirement plan. And teacher don't pay social security tax. This amounts to about a 7 1/2 percent bonus on top of their salary. Pretty good money for 9 months of work with no weekends. And we wonder why there is such a budget crises at Dist. 54.
How much money in city of morris TIF funds does Dist. 54 get? They probably could use some of that money...oh, wait, it's all going to the new morris municipal building...
For accurate teacher salaries @ district 54 or any other school district in the state of Illinois please go to thechampion.org you will find the salary of any teacher and superintendent for the previous year.....again this is all public knowledge!!!!! Its nice to see everyone back!!!
8/12 9:45 you're trying to throw bombs, but they're all duds! Name the current teacher that is earning $85000 at 54. There isn't one. The pay scale may go that high but no one is close. The $14000 is also not a real cost. As per negotiated contracts with the union the schools have a high deductible policy that the employee is reimbursed for some expenses. Yes if a family of four were each hospitalized from a tragic accident the district's healthcare trust fund may incur $14000 total expense for that employee for that year, but that is not the true expense to the schools. It is a cap per employee with family coverage per year. Not a cost per year! Many Teachers do pay Social Security; the law was changed 10 years ago for all newly hired employees. The generous retirement plan is very good, but the teachers make the contributions at a rate of 8%. The district makes an equal contribution as required by State law.
Ken Iverson, $85,409 for 2006 schol year. Plus bennies.
I hope 8:15 is not a board member.
$85,000 plus fully paid healthcare plus retirement, and three months off in the summer sounds pretty generous to me.
Is that the $85,409 Ken Iverson, plus bennies, who wrote the anti doctor anti surgicenter piece in the Morris Daily Rag, at the request of the hospital?
You people in Morris want to feel better, look at salaries in Coal City.
Kenny is up for county board next year.
Ken Iverson did earn that salary before he retired the spring of 2006.
The good news is that there is a whole slew of "older" teachers who earn the highest salaries (in the 60's and 70's)who will be retiring in the next 4 years to be eligible for the state's new retirement program. That should save the district quite a bit of money, as it will likely hire younger teachers who are not earning the big bucks yet.
If you think District 54 teacher salaries are excessive, just take a look at the salaries in District 101. It is time to put a cap on the excessive salaries and benefits.
Yes. A cap would be a good idea to save taxpayers money.
And to better our children's education, how about getting rid of tenure. That's what keeps the worst teachers teaching year after year.
read jeanne milsap's article about more details on district 54. Remember 8/10 2:16 pm's lies about "every class has over 30 students"? They're still lies. THINK for yourselves when you hear or read such drivel.
Instead of bitching about the teachers whom I believe are brutally underpaid, we should focus our efforts on the salaraies of the administrators. Hard to believe over 50% of my tax bill goes to support Dist. 54, which built White Oak (physically) outside of their district...
Not so fast about 8/10 being a liar. Their comments were closer to the truth than Loaf Pincher. The School Board must have agreed with the sentiments since they added FIVE teachers when they just said the week before that they wanted to Cut $300,000 to $600,000.
Amen about getting rid of our incompetent teachers who have tenure and have long since stopped caring about doing what's best for their students
The Morris high school drivers ed instructor John Mackinson who taught his students that it's ok to leave the scene of an accident that killed a little dog is still teaching.
And get this, he makes more than $101,000 a year! I thought that was bad for an administrator, but he's just a flunkee teacher who isn't respected by his students or his collegues.
I bet this man of low morals would have been long gone if there was no longer tenure.
Dick is against the teachers.
To the commenter who discussed the morals of the well-compensated teacher who taught driver's ed students to drive away after killing the little dog - I agree with you completely, and I believe you have correctly identified the teacher, but please re-word your comment to omit the teacher's name. Then I will publish the comment.
(Well, now I forgot what I said about the drivers ed teacher, sledge! It's been more than 5 minutes!)
:)
The drivers ed teacher who told his students they should leave the scene of the accident after hitting the dog in the Rockwell Estates neighborhood is paid pretty well to teach these morals to his students.
According to Champion, he makes more than $101,000 a year.
I just don't see what all this fuss is about.
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