Evanston Township High School District 202 officials and members of the district’s Teachers’ Council have opted to extend a contract for the high school’s educators for one year, citing uncertainty around the state budget and school funding in general.
The one-year extension, which will expire on June 30 of next year, includes a 0.8 percent increase in base salaries, a $275 one-time payment and a step increase if applicable.
The 0.8 percent increase amounts to roughly $200,000 in additional expenditures and represents just under 0.3 percent of the district’s $72.4 million operating budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, according to Mary Rodino, chief financial officer for District 202. The last contract between the district and its Teachers’ Council was approved in 2012 for a four-year term and including a 2.67 percent salary adjustment over the course of the four years, in addition to “a wellness component to address future healthcare costs,” according a joint statement from the council and District 202.
Rodino said the one-year extension allows the district time to monitor what happens next on the state level. Gov. Bruce Rauner and leaders in the state legislature cut a deal late last month on a six-month stopgap spending plan following an entire year with no state budget.
“While that does allow us to receive most of our state funding (although at a slow pace), many things have been left unresolved,” Rodino wrote in an email. She said the district is still concerned about a bill that would alter the school funding formula – which, if passed, is expected to cost District 202 over $2 million in annual state funding – and about a potential shift in pension costs from the state to local school districts.
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District 202 Board of Education President Pat Savage-Williams said the district is looking for more stability around school funding at the state level before approving a years-long contract with the district’s Teachers’ Council.
“If we have that, then we can negotiate a new contract in good faith. Right now, it would be really hard to do because there are so many uncertainties,” she said.
Rodino said the district is “hopeful” some of the issues will be resolved this year, though it’s likely there won’t be much change until after the November elections.
She said negotiations between the council and the district will likely resume this fall.
“We have not set a bargaining start date but, yes, our goal is always to have the contract resolved before it expires. Once teachers are back from summer break, we will start having conversations on picking dates and timeframes,” Rodino wrote in the email.
Bill Farmer, president of the ETHS Teachers’ Council and a biology teacher at ETHS, said in the joint statement with the district that the council understands the uncertainty around school funding in Illinois and the long-term planning challenges it poses for districts throughout the state. The council is committed to “good faith negotiations during the upcoming school year with the shared goal of balancing fiscal responsibility with both the enhancement of student learning conditions and the district’s ability to attract and retain an exceptional faculty,” he said in the statement.
Farmer did not return a request for comment for this story.
Savage-Williams said the council and the district’s teachers are aware of and understand the fiscal ambiguities facing ETHS and the potential threats to the high school district’s coffers.
“We’ve worked collaboratively to come to this point,” she said.
Savage-Williams added that the one-year contract extension also “reminds the public how this impasse in the state of Illinois impacts the schools and impacts our ability to do business.”
Lee V. Gaines is a freelancer.