Maine Township District 207, with three high schools including Maine South where my students go, is already preparing to wage an assault on teacher salaries next year.
The district has $100 million in reserves in excess of their $140 million budget.
Last year they had an operating deficit and they laid off 13% of the staff.
While the board continues to talk about the difficulties with the economy, they rarely mention their own mismanagement of funds.
No matter.
Now they gloat about having a leaner workforce, as if it was something other than classroom teachers they were talking about.
“A leaner workforce?” An honest person would call that larger class sizes and less support staff.
The truth is that the teachers’ contract is up next year and the board is already prepping to go after teacher salaries.
The district may also look to save money in its next contract with its teachers. The current agreement calls for a 3.5 percent increase on top of step raises of roughly 2.5 percent, but pay hikes may not be part of the next contract, Kalou said.
“The economic circumstances that we are in today are very different than five years ago when they were negotiating this contract,” Kalou said. The district is still a year away from beginning negotiations on a new teacher’s contract, she added.
Fred Klonsky 
Wow, Hillary Rodham graduated from there.