One side moved, the other dig its childish heals in the sand. BOE - you.... oh, nevermind.

Editor's Note: I have reached out to the district for comment on Tuesday's session and am ready and willing to hear their side and post their statements as an update to this story!

This was brought to my attention by my husband, that Grayslake Teachers Pay Scales is considerably lower than surrounding districts, including Round Lake Area Schools. Therefore, we need to be cautious that we don't lose a lot of good teachers and in return get what we pay for, the teachers that other districts don't want (and there is a reason why other districts don't want them). I am just looking at this merely from a business and performance point of view. We won't see the impact from this strike and negotiations right away, but it will definitely have an impact on real estate and re-sale values. It is too bad, this used to be a good community :( I am so sad!!!

Angela,
Thank you for your professionalism and hard work covering this story!!!
We need more journalists like you, keep it coming.

Mia

The people on here bashing the teacher's need to realize that the people in the district that are the highest paid and with the best benefits are administrators and the superintendent. They are at work and being paid today. They are also the people who have figured out the system and are collecting multiple pensions from different states etc. I wonder how many of those individuals have had a reduction in benefits or salary to help the district during tough financial times.

I am most worried about the good teachers that we are going to lose as a result of this strike. This is a great district, my kids go to Prairieview and it has been a great experience. I have never seen a school like that before, but I am afraid some great teachers are going to go elsewhere and we are going to get the leftovers from elsewhere. I only have one more year there, but I can't help it but to be concern. A fair agreement needs to be reached soon, when are they meeting next?

I am surprised that the Federal Mediator invented his own proposal. They usually do not create their own solutions and take it to both parties. The simple reason why they don't and shouldn't is because of what exactly we see in this article. That one party uses the rejection of the mediator's suggestion as a political weapon against the other side. This is very bad from a negotiation process standpoint. I wouldn't be surprised to see the mediator removed from this case because of this.

It is so disheartening to hear that the union did what they needed to do and the BOE still refused to settle. Those on the BOE are at their jobs today, getting paid and staying warm. Just continued proof to me that the BOE has very little value for the teachers, the students, and the district as a whole.

Cut administration by 25% (cost), give the union what they want, and ask the taxpayers for no money above what is already paid annually. If there is a surplus, the funds should be returned to the taxpayers. If there is a shortage, teachers can either take cuts in pay/benefits or teachers with the least seniority can be laid off.

I heard from a neighbor that the BOE plan to let the strike go on for as long as they could (the plan was 2 weeks). I am not sure what the truth of it is, but the person that told me explained that 2 weeks of payroll for CCSD46 equal to $660,000 and will help the deficit tremendously and that was the BOE plan. However, I thought the time students were out needed to me made up, therefore, there are no savings. Any truth to this? How many days before someone higher up intervene?

I believe that wether or not they make up the days is a negotiable item, although I also thought that the students had to be in school for a set number of days per the state law. Good question Mia. It disgusts me to think that the Board would allow this to go on for two weeks.

Don't teachers get large raises in their last few years before retirement in order to increase their pensions? If this is true then shouldn't raises given now affect how large the later raises are, or vice versa? Or have I over simplified this?

Has anyone from the BOE performed a cost analysis as to the impact this is having on the families that need to secure daycare for their children as opposed to the cost of the proposed mediated increase?

If only half of the families in the district need to secure daycare for their children (approx 2000 students), they are costing these families an impressive aggregate total of $60k PER DAY. If the strike were to last only six days, these families would have paid for the net amount that the union agreed to in year one. If the strike were to last sixteen days these families would be able to pay for the next two years of the proposal. That is a staggering cost to the Grayslake, Hainesville and Round Lake communities - nearly a million dollars if the strike continues for a mere 16 days - and that is only the immediate cost in dollars.

The larger impact will affect local businesses as once-disposable income dries up and already-struggling businesses see an immediate decrease in patronage. Resentment, anger and divided residents along with stunting our children's educational growth account for an even greater impact that reaches far deeper and will remain far longer.

The entire cost of this increase could be absorbed simply by increasing tuition by $125 / year for each student - or about the cost of daycare for each student for only four days of this teachers strike. I strongly urge the BOE and Union to take this mediated agreement and get our children back to school.

I don't think it is fair to bring daycare costs into this disagreement don't forget the kids had a 1/2 friday and Monday off parent would have had to figure that out anyway. And most teachers have children too who have to be in daycare while they strike. And if the days have to be made up in the end, then that is 1-2 weeks of daycare you didn't have to pay at the end of the year. However, that just makes it sound like you use school as a daycare facility and I don't think that is a good analysis when it comes to the reasoning behind the strike.

when will they cancel school tomorrow, if they are not meeting today they should let us know.

People who don't have daycare expenses should not comment on the topic.

Using figures from the ISBE site listed in comments from yesterday’s article:

http://www.isbe.net/research/htmls/salary_report.htm

I calculated average and median salaries for Grayslake D46 and five nearby districts. To do that I had to made a few adjustments to the data: I removed administrators, and converted salaries for people who have other than full time jobs to their full time equivalent (for example I multiplied the base salary for a 0.5 FTE job by 2.) I also removed a total of three records with zero or nearly zero compensation so they wouldn't skew the results. Then I added the other compensation categories to the base salary – annuities (didn’t see anything but zeroes in that column), retirement enhancements, and other benefits – to get total compensation. All calculations were for the 2012 year as reported to ISBE. Finally, I did not adjust for the variation in sick days by district, I will just list that with the results, rounded to the nearest $1,000 – first average, then median:

Lake Villa $61,000 $58,000 15 sick days
Fremont $63,000 $58,000 15 sick days
Grayslake $65,000 $62,000 16 sick days
Woodland $74,000 $71,000 13 sick days
Round Lake $77,000 $72,000 14 sick days
Libertyville $77,000 $73,000 12 sick days

Looks like Grayslake salaries are in line, but unless other districts freeze salaries too, which there is no sign they will, our district will fall behind fairly quickly. Not good. I stand with the teachers!

Maybe it's just me, but I want my tax dollars to go toward an exemplary primary education program in Grayslake, and that includes teachers' salaries and benefits. Not looking forward to Dist. 46 becoming some kind of backward, podunk school district. Keep it classy, BOE!

Excuse me, but is being almost the highest property taxed district in the country not enough, or are we shooting for number one? Momof4, I'm not sure of this but I'd bet you're not exactly a Grayslake "native". Taxing retired, retiring lifelong or just longtime residents out of town is good with you? It's time to reinvent the way we do this, not time to keep piling it on. And no, I don't expect to pay for increasing teacher's salaries while those paying those salaries have watched theirs stagnate or drop. I do know one thing. If the talk is about increasing our tax rate we will see a whole bunch of people who would never have considered it before, become tea party types.

Just received a robocall cancelling school for tomorrow.

Thank you to those who support us, D46 teachers. For those who don't I am sorry you feel this way. Today, as I was at the picket line I felt the community support and the well wishes coming our way. This is a great community and today I witness the kindness of complete strangers coming with coffee, and donuts just because they know how hard we work. Therefore, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Per the district: The strike continues. There will be no school tomorrow Thursday Jan. 17.

Keep in mind; this is still a 4-3 school board.

It couldn’t be more obvious at least one of the “comfortable crew” has changed sides, or at least temporarily to get through the next election cycle.

I find it interesting how most of those who typically support the likes of Ray Millington, Keith Surroz, Karen Weinert and the unethical Sue Fecklam aka; “The Comfortable Crew” are now vilifying the entire board.

I guess you can’t blame this on Kip Evans, Shannon Smigielski and Michael Carbone alone.

I am very happy to see that the BOE's politics are coming to light in this forum. My D46 children and I support the teachers. I'm saddened that many of the hard-liners obviously no longer have children in the district and are only interested in their own wallets.

As a parent, teacher, and community member, I fully support our teachers and their efforts to educate our children. We moved to this community knowing that we would have higher taxes but we were willing to take the hit to ensure that our children would receive a quality education. I have been very pleased with the level of education that my kids have received up to this point but I am very worried that we are going to start losing the high quality teachers that we need to prepare our students. Personally, I am willing to curtail my Starbuck's runs and spend a little less in other areas to pay the teachers appropriately. I want them to be able to focus on doing their job effectively, passionately and not be worried about what second job they need to pick up to make ends meet. Our children need to come first RIGHT NOW or we are going to have even more problems later. If we want to help our children be competitive when they leave these schools then we need to send that message right now. Don't fail our children, don't fail our future!

With the teachers on strike, why are the 166 assistants required to be at work in empty schools? No money for teachers?

Tony, I said "only" interested in their wallets. We're all interested in our own money, but some of us can look beyond that myopic view.

The Board Members of district 46 (if one votes 1 way on an issue another will vote the opposite way)do not get along and they are trying to make a political statement with this. This is not going to be a short strike and we as Grayslake residents need to do a better job of knowing who is being elected and for what reasons. The people making the comments about how easy it is to be a teacher and how over paid they are, maybe you should go back to school and get a teaching job, then you would have to deal with the parents just like yourselves. I have kids in district 46 and at the high school. So there are some in D46 who are overpaid and some underpaid. We just need to be on par with the districts around us so our kids get a good education. Better teachers will make our kids better off in life. I drop my son off at school in the morning and I don't see a parking lot filled with BMW's and Mercedes. I work in sales and the better sales people make more more money, our owner is not generous but he is fair and our pay is on par with other places. I am sure the teachers just want what is on par with other districts. The real question is how many board members have kids in district 46? How many actually live in Grayslake? How did they get elected in the first place and what is there objective, our kids education? Shame on us for not knowing until now and letting our kids suffer for it!

A Strike Mediation Session is Scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday. School Remains Cancelled for the Day.

Reminder - 7pm at State Bank of the Lakes, 50 Commerce Dr, Grayslake.

Townhall meeting to discuss the strike. Hosted by For Our Children's Future.

Well said Bob. That's why I rarely vote for incumbents. Typically, entrenched politicians tend to advance their own agenda, not the community's.

I just have to say I support our teachers 100%. When I look at my tax bill I see that I pay about $10.00 a day for a good education for my kids. I have only had one issue with a teacher in 8 years of sending our kids to D46. The teachers deserve a raise, all reports say the teachers are willing to compromise, and the board will not budge. That is a shame. To those that say teachers get paid enough, I ask are you willing to accept a proposal from your employer that says you can only max out at x amount. Once you reach x amount you will no longer get a raise no matter how long you work for us? I bet not.

Correct me is I am wrong. I attended a School Board meeting in November at Woodview and there a was a disagreement between board members (what else is new) over what to do with $850,000 dollars that was in a fund to buy materials for students Like books and what not. But $500,000 from a grant was used to purchase the needed materials for District use, the board was in disagreement what to do with the money. Some wanted to purchase materials for child and some wanted to put it toward the deficit. I remember a board member arguing the money should go for materials even though she was told that the materials could be obsolete with in a year with the new Common Core Standards. Could someone let me know if I am correct.

Let's keep this in mind. Lake County Illinois has the highest property tax rate in the midwest. There are only a few counties in the nation with higher property rates and they would be located on the coasts. And of course Avon Township has had the honor of being the township with the highest rate in Lake County until recently falling to second place behind Lake Villa I believe. I don't think we need to be pushing to regain that distinction we've lost.

Extraordinary students deserve extraordinary teachers. Extraordinary teachers deserve to be paid well. Just a few weeks ago, teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School gave up their lives to protect their students. Teachers in every district in the US, work hard to educate the children in their classrooms, regardless of who they are or where they come from. The teachers in District 46 are no different. They teach because they love the experience of watching a child grab a concept and run with the idea. They don't really expect to get rich doing the job, but they do deserve to make enough to live on and raise their families in reasonable comfort. Good teachers never stop learning. They use their "free time" to go to school to be better at their jobs. The only people that suffer in a teachers' work stoppage are the children. There are only so many days to be in school. Let's not waste the children's chance to learn. Remember, someday these children will be running our world. I hope they are educated enough to do a creditable job.

the teachers have had raises ove the past 6 years they have become greedy
it needs to be about our KIDS that want to learn thank you plow king

I had maybe 10 good teachers and 1 or 2 extraordinary teachers during my formal education, including my time as an undergrad and graduate student. Most teachers are average. And since almost anyone can become a teacher our public education system looks like a jobs program. More money is not the answer. Destruction of the teachers unions is the answer.

Well, maybe I'm just a little out of my league, here. Oh, there is just one more thing. Higher education doesn't guarantee a quality education.

So there you go- Deadcat is all for increasing the unemployment rate. Hey, Dead- teachers are people too. They have families to help provide for, bills to pay, even taxes to pay (I know. Hard to believe). They put money into the economy. Why do you want them to not be able to?

My sons second grade teacher, Mrs. K. Peterson at Prairie View was super excited when she was able to put in for a contest for her whole class to get their own compact disc players. She was ecstatic when she found out her class had won. I never had a teacher do stuff like that. That was pretty awesome of her to think of a way to not spend money to get something for the class. His 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Jansen, has done so much for him and his class as well. I feel bad for the teachers. Everyone is picking on them. Also, don't students turn in the Campbell's soup labels and Boxtops for Education? My kid is always bugging me to buy stuff with them so he can bring them to school. Every month he has a big bag of them that he takes to school. I wish the teachers the best of luck and I hope they get what they want, after all, they are teaching our children.

I don't support greedy thieves. D46 teacher should see how green the grass is on the other side. From the sounds of it 23 will have that opportunity. Don't let the door hit you in the ass. I do not support entitlement groups and Unions which are basically legal gangs.

Fire them all and then replace them with qualified people that will appreciate the current well paid teaching position.

I would like to personally thank District 46. I discovered one thing you can add to your curriculum. Respect! Why? I came home yesterday to find my property vandalized by someone's little angel. Considering I do not have kids and I paid out over 6K in property taxes I think you can considering adding respect. I will certainly make a point to vote your union out of business in April. Have a nice day!

This strike just adds the reason why the people that want to get out of here can't . Lets all just hope the Union doesn't win the battle and further jeopardize the stability of the Grayslake communities and the people are struggling to pay for the Unions. 10k in property tax a for house that will sell for under $200,000. People aren't moving here for great teachers. They aren't moving here because the schools over paid. This area is a joke. Obviously the people defending the unions actions on here are teachers, union members, or live in a bubble.

I am going to ask my boss today for more money even though we have cut half of our staff and have people everyday asking for employment. I am happy with what I have and appreciate the fact that I'm not in the unemployment line. I work harder because I'm thankful for what I have. Let restructure the schools and get people without the entitlement attitude and find people that TRULY love what they do.

My full presentation can now be viewed at http://forourchildrensfuture.com/. If anyone has any questions please contact me. I will also be happy to come to any meeting you set up to discuss this in detail. Video of the meeting will be up later toady.

A special thank you to the teachers and spouses of teachers who attended. Having a dialogue is the way to find a solution based in facts, truth and mutual respect.

As a Grayslake District 46 parent, I stand with the Teachers on this one. The offers that have been made by the Teachers have been fair, reasonable and well within the the budget's means. The BOE is out of order. As a parent helper for the last 4 years, I have seen first hand the dedication and skill of our Grayslake teachers - they are amazing. Support the Teachers!

You are obviously not a financial person Kaetra

Hey ConcernedParent-what are your kids doing out late on a Saturday night? So it becomes the parents responsibility on the weekends? If you are a responsible parent shouldn't they be at home doing homework or playing board games or supervised at some extracurricular school event or are they asking for money to support those activites too? Then I guess then the blame lies with poor parenting? Growing up this kind of behavior had consequences and there would be apologies and restitiution, but today it is politically incorrect to discipline children or instill responsibility and respect. So sorry I know there are parents who are too busy trying to pay GL's taxes to get involved with their children's upbringing.

As much respect as I have for many of the teachers in our district (and I consider many of them as friends) I cannot justify raising property taxes to provide another 2 years' worth of pay increases to any group of employees just because they've always received increases each year. The economy has changed, probably forever. The teachers need to understand this. I side with those that think the teachers who truly care about the children should return to the classroom. The teachers who care about money should leave to seek opportunities in a district where my children do not attend school.

Entitlement raises at any cost to the community. Even if the means holding our children education hostage. Everyone is replaceable even our extraordinary teachers. Shame on them for using our children. I just hope this attitude of entitlement doesn't spill over to our children. Teaching is a public service job it doesn't demand private sector wages and better than most pension and benefits. The private sector will be working until they drop in Grayslake to pay for the teacher to retire in 30 and get a pension that isn't deserved. How much do we owe these people?

Shame on you Ron Verdi for shaming the BOE, but not running for a BOE seat...especially since you seem to think you have all the answers.

Ron is great :) Vote Ron

From D46 Board President Ray Millingon:

CCSD 46 Contract Negotiation Update

"The parties met today and discussed possible changes to their positions but were unable to reach agreement. The Federal Mediator adjourned today’s session. Both sides will be getting back together on Sunday evening."

There will be no school Friday.

This is crazy. The BOE did not put a gun to any teachers head and force them to take a job. They knew their starting salary, when hired. For almost 2 decades, yearly increases have been AT or ABOVE the US average. Stop pointing fingers and have some accountability. You still have a job and job security. You have a generous, competitive salary. Should parents send the kids out into this cold with signs strapped to their neck, picketing the teachers who have failed them?

Yes Ron, some parents do fail their children. SOME. Putting money before educating these children, is unacceptable. What the BOE offered is not unlivable. It does not put the teacher and their family in poverty. It can cause the families that pay the teachers salary to lose their homes but no one seems to care about them. Pay now and who cares where the money comes from. Its why this country is in the state it is. Buy now, pay later.

Lot of experts on here..........?

Strike Information Townhall

Where State Bank of the Lakes 50 Commerce Dr, Grayslake, IL 60030
When January 19, 2013
Time 2:00 pm–5:00 pm

I have family members in this community so I was interested in what the Patch contributors had to say. Sharing my experience - as someone from a town that had to agree to a teacher contract it couldn't really afford - we had to lay off teachers and class sizes increased. Not all right way - just a few. But many more in the next planning year. Looking at my daughter's class sizes 18 months later, they are much larger. It creeps in... Eventually the bill comes due and a big item in any school budget is salary and benefits - so you gotta cut teachers. And when that happens, they have to cut the number of classrooms or middle school sections. And you child is now in vying for her teacher's attention. Or they are waiting 4 weeks to get an English paper graded because their English teacher lost their planning period because they had to take on another section. Teachers commented to me in P/T conferences that their classes were too big. It was hard not to ask "what did you think was going to happen". I understand both sides, but taking on larger salary and benefits each year is hard to absorb. It's easy to say that fund balances should be used for paying salary and benefit increases - but eventually they need to be restored - and with declining revenues the only way to restore them is to cut costs - cause increasing revenues is hard to come by. I'm not trying to be pro either "side" - just trying to share the realites of what year two will be like for your kids.

I am not sure how many people are aware of this but full time kindergarten cost parents $3,500 extra dollars. Thats on top of a $10000 tax bill for house worth peanuts.

Is Jose Cuervo Shannon Smigielski? Hmm...If you scour past posts about the strike, there are some very curious statements said by Jose Cuervo which almost identically match the update statement which is on http://www.d46.org/

Ok, here is where it gets odd. Jose Cuervo said on 1/16 in this thread: http://grayslake.patch.com/articles/district-46-strike-is-on "The board's offer was and is fair given the deficit and future projections. Expending any more than the current offer puts people out of work and directly affects the kids as classrooms will grow. There is over $1 million in deficit. Adding $1 to that is too much."

The website text says, "...The State of Illinois, under it’s own financial pressures, underpaid the district by 1.5 million dollars last year. Furthermore our financial projections show a 2.2 million dollar deficit next year, even if we do not give raises to the staff. The Board is trying to avoid deficit spending."

Very very odd connection between those two pieces of text.

No one is a winner when a community is torn apart.

Why do the numbers of teacher layoffs by the BOE and their calculations change on a daily basis? The number of layoffs tripled in 3 days... Which is it??????

@ Terri, doesn't hurt me at all but the person who is being dragged into something she has nothing to do with is. Which brings me to understanding your point and issuing an apology. Message received and lesson learned. I'm sorry.

Shannon is a now a public person with a horrible rep. She did it to herself.

I too would love to know why the board told the teachers 14 possible layoff, but for this statement tripled that number. Who are they lying to? Why are they changing their story. If what they say in this statement is what they view as true, they are even worse at counting than I thought.

They cannot nor should they be trusted to make an accurate account of this situation.

COME SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE CHILDREN, PARENTS AND TEACHERS THIS SUNDAY WHEN THE BOE MEETS WITH THE UNION AT PARK SCHOOL!

In light of the pending school bus drivers' strike in NYC, I again wonder how Shannon feels about that. More importantly, if D46 drivers were to strike, to whom would her loyalty go?

I don't know if the bus drivers belong to a union, so this could be a hypothetical. But, if they do, does Shannon belong? Are the bus drivers D46 employees?

Rumor has it the Board is going to cancel on Sunday night. The BOE is supposed to meet with the Fed Mediator an hour early at 5pm and the negotiations would start at 6pm with the Union.

Whatever side you are on, make sure BOE doesn't care more about their 3-day weekend plans and shows up to settle this.

If the BOE doesn't show up, this strike is going another week. With 2 weeks of striking, the BOE will have made enough money up to pay the teachers but the lost school days won't be made up.

Wouldn't it be sad if this whole strike was the BOE's attempt to put money aside at the sake of our children's education? How sad would that be. I wouldn't be surprised if that was their intention the whole time.

I would expect a refund for the days of education your children don't receive.

Make sure the Board of Ed shows up on Sunday for the meeting.

BB

asdf

I would think if that is true, Shannon would be in some sort of violation. Another investigation....

Michael Carbone is already going by an assumed name. His real name is Michael Jorudd. An excerpt from the Sun Times: http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/15966816-505/lake-county-candidate-has-other-name-in-his-past-as-well-as-a-handful.html
For most of his life — including at Antioch High School, where he graduated — he was known as Michael Jorudd. Under that name, he racked up criminal arrests and charges that include driving on a suspended license, criminal trespass to property, assault and two DUI charges. In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Carbone insisted that the fact he’s now using a different name doesn’t mean he’s trying to hide anything. “We went through the process, and I came up victorious every time,” he said of his bouts with the law. “I was young, a different age. People aren’t perfect. I never said I was perfect. I am not a perfect person.”

Yeah. No kidding.

Reminder - Townhall Meeting to discuss the district finances, a 5 yr contract proposal and must more data.

2 pm
State Bank of the Lakes
50 Commerce Dr
Grayslake

350 people showed up Sunday in the freezing cold to support the teachers of their district. That’s:
• 10 times the number that showed up for either of the For Our Children’s Future town halls.
• 10 times the number, on average, that shows up to BOE meetings.
• 5 times the number that have ever shown up for a BOE meeting (in recent history).
30 local business showed their support for the teachers by supplying food, providing parking, providing warming shelters, allowing access to their bathrooms, and donating cash to help teachers that might need it in a prolonged strike. Residual benefits went to local food banks through excess donations. That’s:
• 10 times the number of local business’s that spoke at any levy hearing.
• Equal to the number of attendants at any For Our Children’s Future town Hall.
• Equal to or greater than the average attendance at a BOE meeting.
Actions speak louder than words. I applaud the board for listening to the public. I only wish the silent majority had been more vocal at the levy hearings. It’s too late to do what the public really wanted.