Snowflake Schools: Presidential Posturing

Like everyone else, you’re probably getting weary of all the controversy taking place with the school board of Hinsdale High School District #86, the latest of which is the increasingly contentious contract negotiations between the board and the teachers’ union, the Hinsdale High School Teachers Association (HHSTA).  Most recently, teachers marched in an informational picketing session prior to Monday’s school board meeting, the HHSTA conducted a vote to authorize its negotiations team to call for a strike should no contract settlement be reached by the beginning of next school year, and the District #86 school board president, Rick Skoda, compared the HHSTA to the Chicago teachers’ union.

The problem, of course, is that all these players need to work together to educate the teens of District #86, which becomes harder as the rancor builds.  And let’s not be coy about where my sympathies lie:  I was an English teacher and union activist (including president and negotiator) at Hinsdale South for twenty-five years.  I believe the facts support my contention that the school board is the main instigator of the current difficulties, but you should be aware of my history and biases right from the start. 

The board has adopted a tactic of negotiating in public by releasing HHSTA proposals with minimal explanation.  Proposals are just that—offers to which the other side can respond with offers of its own—not final ultimatums.  That’s why it’s so counter-productive to release negotiations details prior to the final agreement.  The HHSTA, despite the extreme proposals made by the school board, has not publicized any of them except in the most general terms in response to the more specific comments made by board president and spokesperson, Rick Skoda.

The recent election of Skoda as the board president (by a 4-3 vote) could be interpreted as another tactic to attempt to legitimize the board’s extreme views since Skoda was a teacher himself for over thirty years at Morton High School.  He is being portrayed as a dedicated professional who has devoted his working life to education through his teaching and board membership.  And he is to be applauded for his willingness to work for both his community and his students over the years.  But when he starts attacking the teachers’ proposals as outrageously expensive, everyone should be aware of how hypocritical any teacher would view his rhetoric.

Teacher salaries are a matter of public record, so no confidentiality is being violated when we look at Skoda’s salary over the years at Morton.  In 2004, he earned $87,930 (all figures were obtained from the teacher salary data base found at http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php) after 27 years of teaching, roughly 3.3% more than the $85,115 he earned the year before.  But for the next four years, Skoda’s salary went up 20% per year with the resulting totals:

2005 - $105,516;

2006 - $123,120;

2007 - $145,582;

2008 - $169,944. 

In other words, from 2004-2008, Skoda’s salary increased by 93%.  Yet this is the same man who is lambasting the HHSTA for an initial proposal of less than 5 ½ %, coming after base salary increases for the District #86 teachers of 0% in 2012-13 and 1.38% in 2013-14.  You should also be aware that the 5 ½ % figure probably includes the cost of eligible teachers advancing a step on the salary schedule for an additional year’s experience, and that the base (starting teacher) salary increase proposal is more like 3%.  

Skoda and his allies on the District #86 board (Claudia Manley, Victor Casini, and Ed Corcoran) have every right to make the case to the teachers about what they believe to be reasonable, financially sustainable, and fair salary proposals.  Nobody is trying to censor their attempts to follow their convictions in leading the district.  However, trying to bully the teachers through hypocritical, misleading public comments is wrong. 

Skoda’s substantial salary increase can be put into even better context when you compare his teaching district, JS Morton High School District #201, to District #86 (all figures from the 2013 Illinois Schools Report Cards):  The per pupil instructional expenses of Morton #201 were $6,817 to Hinsdale #86’s $11,342.  The number of students below the poverty level in Hinsdale was 12% to Morton’s 89%.  There are many other statistics on these report cards, but those two clearly demonstrate that Hinsdale #86 is a wealthier district which can much more easily afford to compensate its teachers fairly.  Yet, Skoda got a 20% raise for four consecutive years while working in Morton, but has no difficulty in blasting Hinsdale teachers for proposing a 5.45% increase.   

To be perfectly clear, I’m not arguing that Skoda didn’t deserve his generous raises.  I’m also hopeful that the District #86 school board will come to its senses over the summer to avoid any disruption of the 2014-15 school year.  But you can imagine how it sits with the District #86 teachers when his comments about their salary proposals being too large are featured prominently in the Patch and other places when he knows he got four years of 20% raises. (And imagine what Skoda would say about any District #86 teacher who would propose that kind of increase.)  Instead of relishing his role as teacher-bashing board president, Skoda should take a hard look in the mirror and begin figuring out ways to resolve the disintegrating relationship between the District #86 school board and its teachers.  I’m guessing that teacher Rick Skoda would have had a hard time working for board president Rick Skoda.