The president of North Shore District 112’s teacher’s union fired back April 17 after school board member Michael Cohn criticized the new five-year contract as a step backward that could require budget reductions down the road.
Pamela Kramer, president of the North Shore Education Association, said the contract was settled within the financial parameters that the school board’s bargaining team agreed upon.
“We agreed to eliminate step increases because it was necessary to do so in order to settle within the parameters that we all agreed to,” said Kramer. “We believe that we bent over backwards in our effort to compromise, which makes Mr. Cohn’s remarks all the more disappointing.”
Before voting against the contract April 16, Cohn – who served on the board’s bargaining team — explained his opposition and expressed the view that District 112 could not afford to replicate the pay packages of neighboring school systems.
“Trying to emulate our surrounding districts is a mistake because our district has a unique set of challenges,” Cohn said, adding that attracting and retaining employees has not been a problem and the district has hundreds of applicants when positions become available.
The list of 17 districts used for comparative purposes in negotiating the new contract included school systems in Skokie, Deerfield, Wilmette, Winnetka, Northbrook, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and other locales.
“Apparently, he doesn’t care that the best new teachers will seek jobs in other districts because you can always find someone who will be willing to take a job here, even if it’s not someone whom we would usually consider hiring,” Kramer said. “Mr. Cohn is apparently willing to let Deerfield, Bannockburn and Lake Forest and other comparable districts hire the best teachers, while we would be forced to accept the leftovers. This approach would put District 112 into a decline in quality. We can’t agree with this penny-smart, pound-foolish philosophy.”
As for the pre-retirement pay boosts retained in the contract — 6-percent raises for each of four years — Kramer said that both parties did an analsyis showing “that retirement incentives actually save money for the district as veteran teachers retire.”
Kramer said the teachers’ union had not been notified of the vice president’s intention to vote no on the agreement.
“If the rest of the board had chosen to follow Mr. Cohn’s irresponsible ‘no’ vote, the NSEA would have filed unfair labor practice charges,” she said.
