BETA Comments

The current teachers’ contract was finalized in December 2005 for a 3-year term beginning September 2006 and expires August 2009. That contract provided very generous pay increases over the three-year period. It also continued the practice of paying for a significant portion if not all of the cost of teacher benefits.

Since these negotiations lack any public scrutiny let alone citizen input, this lack of transparency in the process does raise questions. Some might suggest that the School Board will act responsibly without public input, but their history has not suggested that. In that light, BETA makes the following observations and suggests actions on the part of the BETA membership and citizens.

• Will the School Board and the union make the right decision relative to teachers' pay and fall in line with the pay practices now being enacted across the country during these troubled times or will teachers’ receive generous increases as they did under the last contract? Some teachers received increases in excess of 8% for the school year 2008 – 2009.

• Taxpayers residing in CUSD220 have seen the value of their homes decrease and many aregiving up their raises or are being asked to work a shorter work week in order for their employer to survive. Will the teachers' union acknowledge the reality of the economy in their negotiations and consider the affordability of the cost of their contract decisionsto the taxpayers?
  Will the union and the School Board look for ways to reduce spending in order to minimize the tax impact on taxpayers living in the District? Many taxpayers do not realize that as their home values fall and as the taxing bodies continue to increase their tax levy requests, ultimately their property taxes must increase to fund the operating budgets of the various taxing bodies. The tax levy drives the amount of taxes we pay! The escalating cost of operating our schools is not sustainable at which point the system will be in crisis.