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News
Administrators to pay part of healthcare costs? : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisAdministrators to pay part of healthcare costs?
| Board member pushes for additional administrative budget cuts
| by Lyle R. Rolfe
| 2/25/2010
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Mike Scaramuzzi told his fellow Oswego School District Board members during a meeting Monday night that administrators should pay at least 10 percent of their $18,133 health and $1,300 dental insurance costs now paid by the district.
The board approved Phase I of the budget deficit reduction plan for the 2010-11 school year by $5.5 million, in a split 6-1 vote.
Scaramuzzi voted against the plan while Board President Lynn Cullick and board members Andrea Schweda, Laurie Pasteris, Steve Wolf, John Graff and Dave Behrens voted in favor of it. Scaramuzzi said he was opposed because the cuts were not deep enough from the administration side.
The board also approved a motion made by Schweda for the administration to return a plan for an additional 10 percent reduction in the health and dental care benefits for the administration and bring it to the March 15 meeting.
It passed 5-2 with Wolf and Behrens voting against it.
"This is not the way you do it," Wolf said, ending the meeting.
Scaramuzzi said the Plainfield School District is asking its administrators to chip in for health care, and said he believes the idea will have a domino effect on other school districts.
Union employees in the district pay 25 percent of their health care cost.
When it came time to vote on just over $5 million in cuts to make up for lost state funding, Scaramuzzi said he was voting no "because the cuts at the administrative level were not deep enough."
"If my math is correct, that amounts to more than $1.2 million per year for 74 to 75 administrators. Plainfield is adopting a budget that will ask their administrators to pay 10 percent of their health costs," Scaramuzzi said.
"I think it's only prudent that we ask our administrators to do the same thing-pay 10 percent," he said.
Scaramuzzi then had to stop talking until cheering from the audience subsided.
He continued, "Before you cheer again, I want to make it very clear that the (Oswego), administration is the lowest paid out of the 13 comparable districts, and it is the 20th out of 21 if you expand that list of 13 districts. The Oswego salaries include benefits."
Scaramuzzi said he believes districts asking their administrators to pay part of their health benefits will become a trend, based on the increased costs of health insurance for all employees.
"I think it's only fair that our administrators pay 10 percent of their health costs," he said.
Scaramuzzi made his comments after Graff asked Todd Colvin, assistant superintendent for administrative services, what percentage district employees paid on their health costs, noting this may be an area were the district can save money.
Graff estimated that between 20 and 25 percent of the 180 e-mails he received during the previous one to two weeks were health-care related.
Colvin said they have collective bargaining contracts with four employee groups.
According to the contracts, the district pays 75 percent of the $18,168 health care costs and the $1,301 dental care costs for families with the employee paying 25 percent. Single employees pay 20 percent of the cost and the district pays 80 percent. Colvin said.
The district pays the full cost for the administrators, Colvin said.
He said the Oswego teachers are in the middle of the comparable districts. Other district employees are not the lowest but the administrators are lowest among comparable districts including their benefits.
Colvin said a salary reduction could result in a revolving door of administrators leaving.
Scaramuzzi said he believes administrators paying part of the health cost is a domino that will fall across all districts in the near future.
"I also will add for the audience that the administrators took a pay freeze last year and they are the only employee groups that did take a pay freeze," Scaramuzzi said.
Cell phones, building
trades program discussed
Scaramuzzi made his comments during a board discussion on possible ways to cut costs for the 2010-11 budget when the state may fail to fund the district on up to $11 million in general state aid and categorical grants such as transportation and the Early Learning Center.
Scaramuzzi also said the district's proposal to cut 60 percent of the cell phones given to administrators is not enough and recommended this be increased to 80 percent. This would leave them with phones for 37 administrators which he said are more than enough to operate the district.
Colvin said district building engineers and maintenance people, who often travel between buildings, use cell phones but said he would take a close look at these expenses.
Schweda asked if the high school building trades program, (one included in the cuts), could be continued with the students working for Habitat for Humanity rather than building a new house.
Tim Neubauer, executive director of finance services, said they could look into this. He said the program is being cut because the last two student-built houses are still unsold.
"We've got close to $600,000 tied up in those two homes," he said.
He said this suggestion could be considered along with parent suggestions that the students build additions onto homes or do business projects.
Scaramuzzi suggested they see if it could be combined with the high school's Interrelated Cooperative Education program that also is being cut.
Pasteris suggested they rejuvenate a foreclosed home instead of building a new one.
She also asked about the wood shop class that was eliminated at the new Traughber Junior High in Oswego.
Colvin said they could not find a qualified person to teach the program, so the new materials and equipment ordered for Traughber went to other schools to replace older equipment.
"Starting the program up again would mean spending additional money for new material," he added.
Wolf noted that teacher's aides and assistants are invaluable to the district. The cuts included 80 employees, 68 of which are teaching assistants.
Wolf asked how the cuts would affect special education students and those with Individual Education Plans.
Colvin said state law requires the district to have teacher assistants in these classrooms so they will not be affected by any cuts.
Wolf also asked about a statement that Oswego's pupil-to-teacher ratio is 16.2 to 1 making it the highest out of 13 comparable districts, and above the state's average of 13.3 to 1.
Parents also questioned this figure, noting that many classes have up to 30 students per teachers.
Colvin said the figure includes counselors, LRC directors and other that "skew" the numbers.
Superintendent Dr. Dan O'Donnell said everyone is aware some classes have 30 and 35 students, but said this method of figuring the ratio is the one the state requires them to use.
Cullick: Ask again
about re-opening contracts
Cullick said they have had discussion with other employees groups about various issues and added that "they have not been very receptive about reopening their contracts".
She asked that the administration meet with the employee groups again to discuss reopening their contracts to see if something such as district-wide furlough days could be agreed on to help cut the district expenses.
Colvin said he would do that, noting that all the union groups have done what they could to tighten their belts.
"But I will ask them to consider opening their contracts and making other concessions," he said.
Cullick said she wants to save as many jobs as possible and added that it will take everyone to work together and tighten their belts as much as possible.
When Scaramuzzi asked if any such talks had been held, Colvin said there have been some informal discussions, but nothing definite.
Wolf said it would be difficult for teachers to take furlough days because substitutes would have to be hired to replace them. He said things such as furlough days would be more applicable to the 12 month employees.
Colvin said the district has the 174 day model for student attendance but decided about eight years ago to have classes 175 days a year to improve student achievement.
He said they could look at changing this for the 2011-12 school year.
Pasteris asked about busing and Colvin said they are continually looking at busing to see if any changes can be made to reduce costs.
Scaramuzzi also noted that eight of 18 other area districts have only one assistant principal in their building nine of them have two assistants and Wheaton has two buildings with one and half principals statistically speaking.
He recommended Oswego reduce its assistant principals by 25 percent or the equivalent of half a person per junior high building which would still leave them with one full-time assistant principal and a part-time assistant.
Colvin said he would like to know the total enrollments of the buildings in the other districts.
He said increasing class sizes in Oswego's junior high would mean more discipline problems, increased special education mandates, and said junior high enrollments by 2014-15 will be over 1,000 per building.
"So I would be very concerned about reducing the number of assistants," he said.
Scaramuzzi said that other districts operating with less than two assistants proves that Oswego can do the same.
O'Donnell noted that the removal of police liaison staff members from the junior highs, one of the cuts, puts more stress on the remaining principal and staff for discipline. He said this should be considered before any additional cuts are made.
Colvin also noted that some of the Aurora schools have deans and some districts have positions called principal/counselors in their junior highs which Oswego does not have.
Scaramuzzi noted that Lakewood Creek Elementary School in Montgomery with 850 students has only one assistant principal and Thompson Junior High in Oswego with 880 students has two assistants.
"These buildings can operate with one and half assistant principals," he said.
Behrens said student problems are different at the elementary then at the junior high levels. He added that more parents are helping at the elementary level.
Graff was told that secretaries have 12 month contracts. But Colvin said they could be changed to less than 12 months when they are renewed again.
When it came time for a vote, Behrens said they should hold off on the reducing the number of cell phones provided, until they get to the next phase of cuts.
"I think we should go to 100 percent and let them buy their own cell phones and we can reimburse them 10 cents a call," Scaramuzzi said.
Schweda said rather than taking jobs away they should take the phones.
Scaramuzzi said the phone is a very minor thing for administrators to give up.
Graff said cell phones can provide safety when an emergency arises.
Scaramuzzi asked if the district could operate safely with 37 cell phones (an 80-percent decrease in the present number), and was told by Colvin that he would like to have time to research the issue.
"I'd like to see a proposal for a (cell phone) reduction at the next meeting," Scaramuzzi said.
When other board members said they need more information on this issue, Schweda said she asked for detailed information on cell phone usage a month before and had not received anything.
No action on health
care issue; vote on cuts
After considerable discussion on the administrators paying part of their insurance costs, Wolf said they should talk to the administrators about considering other cuts such as additional furlough days.
The majority of the board members chose not to act on the health care issue at this time, stating it should be put off until they have to talk about a second phase of cuts.
"I'm not comfortable with the proposal (for cuts), as it stands today. I don't believe the administration has stepped up and taken its fair share," Scaramuzzi said.
Graff mentioned that the administrators have done their fair share considering their salaries were frozen for this year.
Scaramuzzi said the teachers, support staff and bus drivers also received a 14 percent increase in their health care costs last year.
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