Longer days. Sun Times editorial against unused sick days. Quinn pension overhaul. Speeding cameras. VOA is out. These are the main news stories of the day (so far), along with good news from last week's Tech Talk (see previous post) and a pair of AUSL stories (see above). Anything else I missed? Let me know.
Debate rages over longer day in Chicago's public high schoolsSun Times: Chicago Public Schools is setting guidelines for a longer high school day for the 2012-13 year. CPS maintains that the district falls behind nationally in instructional hours. And that’s coupled with underperforming schools. Meanwhile, Chicago parents, students and the teachers union are all asking tough questions about what to do with 40 more minutes of school each day.
Chicago Teachers Union Calls CPS Unused Vacation, Sick Days Payout Report 'Unfair' Huffington Post: The Chicago Teachers Union on Friday stated that a report finding that Chicago Public Schools, since 2006, paid out $265 million to ex-employees due to their unused vacation and sick days "unfairly characterizes teachers and paraprofessionals as abusing the system."
ALSO: Editorial: CPS, union must address cost of unused sick days Sun Times editorial: But to make a real dent in CPS' annual sick pay bill, the Chicago Teachers Union contract also must be changed.
Schools Fear Quinn Pension Cost Proposal Fox: Making local school districts pick up the employers' portion of teacher retirement benefits could save more than $1.3 billion a year for Illinois' beleaguered state treasury. It also could mean financial ruin for some local school districts, school administrators say.
ALSO: Students school Quinn at Capitol Clout St:Gov. Pat Quinn likes to talk about how he's a big supporter of both school kids and the working man. But today school kids helped the working man take Quinn to school.
Gov. Pat Quinn to OK speeding cameras near city schools, parks Sun Times: Garry McCarthy and Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard that the city has a speeding problem “unique from other cities,” which was endangering kids.
No more city work for top Emanuel aide's spouse Sun Times: Mintle and Toolis married in 1999, and public records indicate VOA had at least a smattering of work before then with the city and Chicago Public Schools.
Filed under: Daily News Roundup
"Mintle has kept a low profile since revelations last fall that, at her previous job with the Chicago Transit Authority, she helped craft an early-retirement program that allowed her to qualify for a pension without putting in the requisite time." & "Mintle and Toolis married in 1999, and public records indicate VOA had at least a smattering of work before then with the city and Chicago Public Schools."
Things that make you go hmmmm.
Pensions Perks and Promises
With righteous indignation the powers to be have suddenly discovered
promises made years ago are coming due. Today I turn 65 joining a growing mass of retired boomers. For 41 years I paid into the CPS Pension Fund .I also used 40 sick days cashing in 315 but returning unused 235 .I was lucky and avoided sickness and injury till the very end. That brings me to my point.
Pension up grades, and sick day payments were all granted the CTU
instead of cash. The union was happy they settled without strikes, and
The Board was ever so happy to kick the can down the road. Even I 80
ends somewhere and we have reached that point . I am sure people smarter than me were paid to keep track of such things but surprise we are out of money to fulfill the promises made years ago. For many of us the game is over entering a time of life when we would be free to pursue our dreams now we are afraid to do anything for fear of pension reform. Old goats who promised to finally buy a new car with sick pay refunds are looking at bleak prospects. I hope politician's and union bosses remember we changed the world once and we can do it again. Go right ahead and piss off the boomers you won’t know what hit you.
Problems ahead for abolishing sick time payouts
Mayor Emanuel probably will try to take no prisoners on this issue, because he will not want to be on the wrong side of the PR wave. There are going to be many problems in relation to abolishing the sick day pay outs, which I do believe got way out of hand. As I have stated on the D299 blog the BGA could find some real pay dirt in relation to the bump up many CPS administrators received in their pay during their final year of employment which sweetened their retirement benefits if they only wanted to look.
How is Mayor Emanuel going to deal with Dr. Mahalia Hines who he appointed to the CPS Board. Dr. Hines served as a principal in the Chicago Public Schools for seventeen years. Prior to that, she worked as a teacher in Chicago Public Schools for over 14 years. She did not retire until 2005, it seems more than likely she carried out with her bags of sick pay money. How is that going to work?
How is it going to work that Pat Rocks the CPS general counsel will stand to lose I bet over a hundred grand. Do you think he might himself file a lawsuit against the Board he has to represent to protect his own money. Clearly Emanuel will have to work out some type of hold harmless provision and phase in if he is going to abolish the current policy.
Rod Estvan
Why so coy oh holier-than-thou-one?
If you know the dirt, tell it . . .
But if you are merely "betting", surmising, guessing or spectulating, then you owe it your conscience -- and to the integrity of hundreds of CPS administrators that you just attempted to soil -- to be very, very quiet and to go away.
i assume anonymous is referencing me. If the media wants to look at the question of bumps in the pay of top CPS administrators in their last year of employment they only need to look at the budget details and cross that information with the final year of employment of high level CPS staff. In terms of other current CPS administrators who stand to lose serious money, that is rather obvious isn't it. In reference to Dr. Hines, she worked under the existing CPS rules as both a teacher and a principal up to 2005. If she could get the benefit of the pay out rule and could still be appointed to the CPS Board by the Mayor, how is it possible for her to vote to cut that benefit for current principals and administrators who had planned for that benefit with out compensation?
When CPS has had its current policy for years it is safe to assume intelligent higher level staff at CPS would use it as part of their planning process for retirement. That is why just ending the policy with no phase out would be wrong and I think lead to litigation. As to the comment that I attempted to soil CPS administrators with my post, I do not see it at all. They did what was rational and allowed under the rules, moreover a bump up in pay before retirement has been done for years too for selected employees, not just at CPS but at city hall too. It was also wrong and has helped drain the pension fund and needs to end.
So in closing anonymous if you want me to "out" people you can start by outing yourself and using your actual name and title. I stand by my post and by the way I did not cross post it to D299 from Catalyst someone else did. By the way the Sun Times editorial was right about CPS needing to provide short term disability insurance for employees instead of banking sick days, but something has to be done to protect the interests of current employees, both union and non-union who stand to lose thousands of dollars
Rod Estvan
writing from wonderful Springfield IL
Oh, please don't "be very, very quiet and...go away ", Rod. You make Dist 299 and Catalyst worth reading!
I agree. The major reason I read this blog is to read Rod Estvan's comments. They are more thoughtful and informative than much of what passes for reporting elsewhere.
You suggest that Rahm is simply trying to make sure that he's on the right side of this "pr wave". Could it be that he is partially behind/causing this wave? The timing of this BGA report seems pretty calculated...
It is certainly possible that someone in the Mayor's administration asked the BGA to look at this issue. But when one looks at how many people who have been extremely supportive of Mayoral control of schools who are also dragged into this it leads me to believe that the BGA investigation was not fully orchestrated by the Mayor's office. But I agree that the sick day issue appeared to have been on the table as part of the CTU contract discussions before the BGA report was released so its not irrational to believe it could have been calculated as Teaching2Test stated.
I do believe that Mayor Emanuel plans on purging many of the cost factors of the vestiges of the traditional democratic party patronage system. Part of that historic system was creating loyalty by government employment, which historically was low paid with good benefits and a good retirement package. We all need to recall that the CTU never got a contract until the 1960s and before that time many if not most non-teaching CPS employees were hired out of city hall.
Before I get shot up, I will be the first to say that Mayor Emanuel is developing power relationships with privatizing entities which will perform the tasks of the old system of government employment. The theory is that it will cost less, over time I have my doubts about that. The best example of that is how the US military began to hire outside providers for its food service, which appeared to cost less than using trained military cooks. Eventually it cost even more, and the argument switched from cost factoring to the idea that privatization freed military resources for combat.
I am seeing that debate now in Springfield over services for people with severe disabilities, i.e. should they be in private scattered sites largely community based or continue to be in larger state run facilities. While I support community based services as being the right thing for many people with severe disabilities, I really don't think the cost factoring being used as the driver for these changes will realistically hold up over the years.
Rod Estvan
I'm still awestruck by the fact that Arnie Duncan came out in support of changing this sick day policy without ever feeling the need to explain why he did nothing change it and actually accepted a pay-out of over $50,000!
That was vacation pay, not his sick pay.
Rod don't let jerks who won't even sign their name get to you.
Most of us have observed things in the schools which are
wrong .But proving it takes evidence which is a whole different
matter.If somebody wants to reform the sick day policy look
no further than the schools.How many people know the sick
day papers never leave the school.. If they get lost or filed in the
waste basket have a free day.
Why should Duncan have to pay back unused vacation days? I don't think he was paid for unused sick days as he didn't have the years per the policy to qualify for that. Vacation days are earned, they are accrued with each day/week/month or whatever that you work. All private organizations that I know of also pay out earned, unused vacation days. The only difference is that they usually don't let you carry over so many. There should be some reasonable limit of carry over - like a week.