Sending out an SOS.

Monday’s Park Ridge board of education meeting was fascinating.

Let me set the scene.

The board was going to adopt the proposed budget. Because Park Ridge is a moderately affluent community, and because we won a tax referendum several years ago, the district has been buffered from some of the impact of the economic crisis that other public school districts, particularly urban and downstate districts, are experiencing.

With annual spending of $70 million, the district is operating with savings of 30% over expenses, an unusual budget surplus.

Since Illinois funds it’s public schools on a crazy system based primarily on local property taxes, Park Ridge taxes are high.

The Park Ridge schools (five elementary schools and two middle schools) are run by a politically progressive but financially cautious school board. Teacher raises negotiated two years ago as part of a three year deal were 2.5% each year, below that of the average raise in the private sector.

This year a small group has begun attending board meetings. They number three or four. Some have children in the district’s schools. Some do not. One ran for the school board last year and lost. The are openly hostile to the teachers and our union. They are amazingly misinformed, or they are purposefully lying based on the theory that a lie told often enough gets believed as the truth.

I have been told that tea party groups are doing the same thing throughout Illinois. They have organized small groups to attend community board meetings. Some of these folks are being paid to do it. The money is coming from those like the Koch brothers, and there are plenty of deep pockets operating here.

At the same time individual teachers are being targeted. Activist teachers like myself have had their work files confiscated through the use of Freedom of Information laws by anti-union groups like the Michigan-based Education Action Group.

At Monday’s board meeting the big-lie tactic was flowing like water over Niagara Falls. The members of this small group would return to the microphone over and over again.

They lied about the terms of the bargained agreement. They lied about the performance of our schools.

They accused members of the board of receiving kick-backs from the teachers’ union. They demanded that the contract be negotiated in open sessions. They demanded that the contract negotiated between the teachers and the board be abrogated.

They may have been taking lessons from Rahm Emanuel on that last demand.

The level of personal attack on individual board members was disgusting.

But this is what teachers have been facing for years now. Our professional standing has been undermined. Our employment rights have been revoked. Our promised pensions are under attack. Our salaries (contrary to what some would have you believe) have been stagnant, even compared to those still working in the private sector.

And for teachers, these attacks haven’t just come from a handful of tea baggers. The attacks have come from high government officials, including the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education.

As union teachers in Park Ridge we aren’t sitting still for this. Out of nearly 400 members, over 40 showed up for Monday’s meeting.

While a few teachers spoke, we mainly bore witness.

And we’re sending out an SOS to teachers in districts throughout the state.

Check out what is going on at your school board meetings. We’re pretty sure Park Ridge isn’t unique.

The budget was passed over the objections of this group.

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