Dear editor:

This concerns the current and ongoing contract negotiations with the Niles schoolteachers.

I don’t pretend to know all the facts, and is the case in most such negotiations, both sides purport to have a different set of those alleged facts. While I no longer have children in the local system, I have friends on “both sides of the table” that I respect very much. As a citizen, taxpayer and long-term business owner in Niles, however, we are all affected by the “product” being turned out by Niles teachers.

That would be the kids. That is what this is all about. We have fantastic teachers in this community who are educating some of the most amazing young adults you can imagine. I see them at Rotary Club every Monday, and when we review their scholarship applications in the fall.

Forgetting for just a moment there are some budget issues that have to be navigated, let me just say that the teachers in the Niles school system are excellent, passionate, committed and they are turning out incredible young men and women who will someday — hopefully — stay here and be the leaders of tomorrow, helping our community prosper and supporting and creating our businesses of the future.

Yes, economic times are tough. The district has continuously maintained a healthy “rainy day” fund, but cuts in state aid were deep.

Teachers understand this, and are willing to collectively pitch in, accept cuts in wages and benefits to make things work out. They want to be fair, and to be negotiated in good faith.

Like everyone, I have developed some opinions, and they favor the teachers’ positions. The original administration numbers projected a deficit of nearly $3 million, and although that has since been adjusted by an increase of $100 per student in state aid, and also by a substantial change in actual enrollment. The administration’s original projection was a loss of 95 students, but actual enrollment shows an increase of 85. That’s a swing of 180 students, which generates an extra $6,862 per student in aid, resulting in a reduction of the deficit of more than $1.2 million in just that area alone, not counting the additional state aid for all the students. That should allow for some compromise in the district’s position, but it really hasn’t.

Despite these adjustments in the district’s favor, they have not relented in their position. Why?

Secondly, keep in mind that the deficit projections are just that. The district has projected deficits for the past three years, but they’ve been off by an average of more than $900,000 in each of those years, so their track record at successful projections has not been good. I understand that you want to budget carefully, and plan for worst-case scenarios, but hope for the best.

I think it’s great and I support the administration’s vision in creating the New Tech High School, and in re-opening Eastside School.

However, this investment should absolutely not be solely on the backs of Niles teachers.
The district has now spent more than $60,000 in outside attorney fees and expenses to negotiate a contract with our teachers. This is money that should be used in educating the students in our community. Frankly, I would have thought that negotiating a teachers’ contract would/should have been an item in our superintendent’s job description. I don’t recall the school district ever doing that before, but perhaps I am wrong.

It’s my view that the teachers are not over-reaching. They have agreed to a pay freeze, and a cut in insurance benefits. I think it’s time for people to start paying attention to this issue, to ask their school board members what’s going on, to have them explain the perceived inflexibility on behalf of the district, and to justify to this community why no ground is being given by the district.

If we err, we should do so on the side of the students, and we do that by supporting the Niles teachers.

Respectfully,

Paul Rifenberg

Niles