District 15 Contract Vote, June 8, 2009

During the afternoon of Monday June 8th, 2009, while the general public was at work, and the parents of our community were at home cooking dinner, the president of the District 15 School Board Gerald Chapman called a “special” school board meeting to vote on a 3 year teacher’s union contract. No advance notice was given and the board meeting room was changed… Gerald Chapman: Can we have a motion to ratify the Classroom Teachers Council agreement 2009 to 2012? Gerald Chapman: Discussion? Sue Quinn: I’d like to say I’m not going to vote for this and I’d like to explain why. This contract gives 11.4% over 3 years in base [raises] and step [raises] combined… and over that same 3 year period of time we’re going to be bringing in revenue something less than 5 percent… and that money has to come from somewhere… and it’s probably going to come in the form of program cuts… and so I feel like I need to vote against that because it’s not in the best interest of the kids of the district. Gerald Chapman: Any other comments? Tim Millar: …very similar… I feel that fiscally it’s going to hurt the kids in the long run and there definitely will be deficit spending… with the average increase this next year about 5.15% by my calculations… and again I just don’t think in this economy this is in their best interests… so I’m voting against… Gerald Chapman: Any other comments? Gerald Chapman: [He is voting for the new contract] Before we vote I’d like to say to the audience …