It took almost 30 hours, but the parties controlling the fate of the Chicago public schools hammered out a tentative compromise Sunday that would eliminate an $84.6 million budget deficit and allow the system to continue operating.
The agreement brings to a close an annual political dance that began July 15, when Supt. Ted Kimbrough presented a $2.67 billion budget with a $155.9 million hole.
But it does little to guarantee that the same drawn-out process will not occur again next year, as it has many times over the last decade.
Despite the relief at this year`s accord, Kimbrough has already forecast a deficit of more than $300 million for next year, and there is no indication that the process will be any easier.
And many state and local education experts are now joining the Chicago system in saying that new funds-primarily state funds from all taxpayers`
pockets-are going to be needed to meet its future budget needs.
A dozen or so bedraggled negotiators from the Chicago Teachers Union, the School Finance Authority, the governor`s office and the Chicago Board of Education emerged from Mayor Richard Daley`s office about 3 p.m. Sunday with enough money to close the budget gap.
They had been in the office since 10 a.m. Saturday, haggling over who would give what. And in the end, everyone gave something.
”(We) worked around the clock to solve the impasse,” said a visibly weary Daley during an afternoon news conference. ”Everyone should be commended.”
But the all-night cram session didn`t produce anything that hadn`t been heard before. On its face, the final budget compromise was little more than a round-table agreement to renege on earlier promises:
– Gov. Jim Edgar authorized the release $42.3 million in advance state payments to the district after vowing last fall that he would not.
– The School Finance Authority released $21.7 million in early state payments under its control after maintaining all summer that it should not.
– The Chicago Teachers Union, which had been calling its contract inviolate, agreed to push back its guaranteed 7 percent raise from Sept. 1 to Oct. 13, saving about $8.5 million. The union also allowed its bonus-payment plan to be restructured, accounting for another $6.4 million.
– And in typical fashion, the school board discovered another $5.7 million in administrative reductions after saying for weeks that any further cuts would do irreparable harm in the classrooms.
Daley acknowledged this year`s negotiating marathon would not put the schools on a good financial footing, though he hoped another marathon was not ahead.
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”Our children`s education is too important to be regularly jeopardized by budget disagreements,” Daley said. ”We all know the financial situation at the Board of Education faces yet another shortfall next year.”
The budget-deficit routine usually begins in May, when Kimbrough forecasts a whopping shortfall. His projection this year was $185 million. The deficit usually shrinks around mid-July, when Kimbrough releases his tentative budget. The deficit shrunk by $30 million this year.
From mid-July until the start of school in September, the board, the authority, the governor and the union exchange pleas for money and cuts, waiting until the 11th hour to gather around the bargaining table.
Nevertheless, the players in this year`s settlement lauded it as the start of a new era.
”(This) indicates that people in this city can do what they want to do,” said board President Florence Cox after the board unanimously approved the revised budget Sunday night. ”This really shows a different level of cooperation.”
One significant difference between this year and most years was the administrative cuts approved by the school board. Over the last two months, the board has sliced at least $9 million from its administrative general fund budget, according to spokesman David Rudd.
The cuts approved Sunday by the board included what Kimbrough described as ”doing some buying, not doing some buying. If we were going to buy a computer this year, we will have to put it off until a later period of time but still purchase it.”
The administrative cuts, which are still not clearly outlined, were enough to convince authority Chairman Martin ”Mike” Koldyke and Edgar that the board had done everything it could to eliminate the deficit.
”In the past, I think that we have seen agreements made without the types of cuts that are really necessary to get te school system out of the financial problems it`s been in,” Edgar said.
”I compliment Supt. Kimbrough and the others for the willingness to make some tough decisions here, and to give up some of the things they wanted.
”I include the Chicago schoolteachers in that.”
Other school districts throughout the state also will benefit from Edgar`s decision to release $175 million in general state-aid payments 10 days early.
Representatives from the teachers union refused to comment on the agreement. CTU President Jacqueline Vaughn would only say, ”We`re tired”
when asked if she was happy with the outcome.
The agreement must still be approved by the union`s house of delegates and its full membership. The delegates will meet Friday, and union members will vote after school starts Sept. 9, said union spokeswoman Jackie Gallagher.
Gallagher commended Daley for bringing the parties to the negotiating table. She said Daley had persuaded Kimbrough to request negotiations under the union`s terms rather than his own.
”He was able to get the board and the union to sit down and talk,”
Gallagher said.
The board was facing a crucial deadline of midnight Monday to have a balanced budget that would meet the approval of the finance authority, the state-mandated body that has final say over the board`s budget.
If the board had failed to meet that deadline, the authority would have regained broad powers it once wielded over the board`s finances and contracts. The district also would have effectively shut down until an agreement was reached.
But Daley sped up the negotiating process by imposing a noon Sunday deadline. Daley said all parties had to reach a tentative agreement by then to allow enough time for the state aid to reach the school board`s coffers.
The agreement must still be approved by the authority, which has scheduled a meeting for 3 p.m. Monday. Koldyke said he did not foresee any barriers to the budget`s approval.
The agreement has a number of obvious and not so obvious benefits:
– Chicago`s 410,000 public schoolchildren will be able to return to school Sept. 9. Without the accord, schools may not have opened on time or they would have been disrupted by ongoing negotiations with the teachers union.
– Board employees can start their workweek Monday without fear of the district shutting down. If the parties had failed to reach a compromise Sunday, the board could not have paid its employees or its bills.
– The Chicago Teachers Union can claim flexibility after demonstrating a willingness to compromise on what many regarded as an airtight legal right to the 7 percent raise.
– The board has earned the right to say that it made administrative cuts when it was asked to. That point has been a crucial one for state legislators and for the governor, who have demanded that the board show good-faith efforts at cost reduction before asking for more state aid.
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