As the people who vote for the School Board and pay the taxes, let the negotiators know what you think by making your comments.

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards."
— Mark Twain
I am embarrassed by how our school board has been treating our teachers for nearly a year now. Enough is enough. They have failed us by listening to a superintendent who has only managed up and has deceived them into giving her a blank check to build her empire. She rules her district with an iron fist by hiring the rejects from other districts to do her dirty work. This not the caliber of administrators we pay dearly for with our taxes. Where is the district oversight? Further, seeing the $20K+ district credit card bills come in month after month going to restaurants, Peapod, Cookies-by-design, gas, etc. Cars, gas, 403bs AND pensions for the administrators—it just doesn’t end!! How many people in Deerfield get their gas paid for to drive to/from work? They could at least fill-up locally. Maybe the board should only reimburse for required business purposes which exceed their daily commute – like the rest of the world.

This school board shouldn’t act like they are some sort of fiscal hawks for sticking it to the teachers--you know the ones who directly educate our children—while at the same time paying nearly $200K/year in doctoral classes to a handful of administrators. The district is sitting on $20+ million in reserves of our over- taxed money. Let’s see, they are less than 1% away in negotiating salary increases and I just pointed out an equivalent 2% wasted on administration expenses which never gets to our children. The board’s priorities are messed up. They need to get their act together and settle this.

The citizens of Lincolnwood School District 74 recently called their administration and board out on some of the very same wasteful spending:
http://skokie.patch.com/articles/headline-here-4811ca4c
At least some of their administrators and board members knew when it was time to resign.

Wasteful spending, for any reason, should be unacceptable to all of the District 109 residents. Period. And even if there is misspending, that certainly does not justify making bad financial decisions in other areas. Regarding the issue of compensation and benefits, let's bring some reality to the table. The private sector and most Deerfield residents have received little, if any, nominal let alone real increases in compensation during the past 4-5 years. The cost of benefits in the private sector continues to increase year after year after year, and private employers have had little choice but to pass along increases to its employees. Asking the District 109 teachers (and the administration) to fall in line with what the residents have been experiencing is both reasonable and appropriate now and in the future. Expectaions of 5-6% annual compensation increases are both unrealistic and unsustainable. And all District 109 employees should expect to contibute more to the cost of their benefits, just like the rest of the District 109 residents. We all need to be reasonable and realistic during these still challenging economic/financial times.

@S Brown
You may want to get updated on the facts before you post. Neither the board or DEA are proposing 5-6% annual increases.

At the end of the day, our children will be the ones that will suffer right along with their teachers. We have so much to be thankful for when it comes to the teachers in district 109. I thought there was a no tolerance rule for bullying in this district! If the board is trying to do away with Union then just come out and say it already! The Board has lost the trust of a large portion of this community. They have an opportunity to do the right thing for the teachers and the students. The teachers do NOT deserve to be disrespected in they way the have been in the last year. Where is the thanks from the Board for all the great work they have done with our children? These teachers were hired in this district because there was something special about them. We have the luxury of hiring the best of the best in our district, that is why families move to Deerfield! Community members, please take the time to show support for our teachers. It has been a rough road for them and we need to remind them that we do appreciate the hard work that goes into teaching our children. This has gone on long enough, the support our children receive from their teachers makes a difference, our support for the teachers makes a difference too!

Randy, I'd imagine the "Fortune 300" company you work for is a FOR PROFIT company. That may have something to do with the lack of salary increases... lack of profits! School districts are NON PROFIT or at least should be. As tax payers we should all be concerned with their choice to stock pile our hefty tax dollars when the money should be spent on the students, the teachers and keeping up the aging buildings. The board and the administrators should be ashamed of themselves.

Randy, I would venture to say at least one person got a raise in your company – rain or shine. If your business model is unsustainable than your CEO probably needs to offshore your positions for cheaper wages or sell out to one of his/her buddies in which case they will again reap the temporary rewards for a very select few. Since they can no longer cook the books as easily, guess what – they will lay off 10,000 people in a blink of an eye when they aren’t meeting Wall Street expectations; and when you beat Wall Street estimates they will lay off 10,000 employees in order to sustain future earnings. The only thing I’ve ever seen trickle down is their p!ss. So don’t blame your issues on the teachers.