From My Puppy Pulpit

Bongo is beginning to wonder if the teachers in District 158 have all been brainwashed. No offense, but the happenings in the world around them do nothing to support their seemingly inflexible salary and benefit demands.

Today, the Big Dogs at the Northwest Herald have once again pointed their paw at the D 158 teachers union, but this time, rather than going after the leadership, they are urging teachers to take notice of what's going on around them. You can read that editorial here. Pay particular attention to the last two sentences of the editorial:

"Meanwhile, in District 158, teachers have rejected a contract that guarantees very nice raises and improved benefits for the next few years?

That is a good way to breed resentment in a community."

Bongo wrote about the new District 46 contract the other day, but the NWH goes a bit further and points out a decision this week by a local fire protection district to pull a referendum request off the ballot.

Teachers, do you think Spring Grove's Fire Protection District pulled its referendum request off the ballot because they no longer had the need? Or do you think that level-headed thinking prevailed, and those calling the shots responded to the current economic climate and decided that in the long run, pulling the referendum from the table would do more to help them down the road than watching an ugly public display unfold over the next few months?

Now before Bongo gets attacked by the HEA rant that "this contract would not require a referendum," Bongo points to simple math which proves otherwise:

Bongo has $100 in a savings account. The money is sitting there earning interest and Bongo knows that in a few years he will need to spend that money on an addition to his dog house because his puppies are getting older and bigger. All of a sudden, some of the pups demand an increase in their allowance that causes Bongo to spend $25 a year more than he's bringing in. What happens in four years? Does the need for the expansion to the dog house go away? No. Bongo has no choice but to go to his master and ask for more money because he gave everything in his savings account to his pups.

Translated to District 158, overcrowding at Huntley High School is an absolute certainty in the district's short term future. It is an absolute certainty that we will either need to build and staff another high school, or build and staff a large addition onto the current high school. A look at the sizes of the grade levels moving up through the district shows this problem clearly. The hiring of new teachers comes out of the fund the current teachers are insisting District 158 tap for their salaries/benefits.

Teachers, please wake up. Bongo knows you are smart. Snap out of the trance you've been put under by leaders who are clearly not worried about breeding resentment in this school community. And that resentment, by the way, would be directed at teachers who want the District to deficit spend; not at District leaders who offered a more than fair contract but refused to compromise future district expansion plans that HELP TEACHERS as much as they help parents.

And by the way, the Daily Herald published a story yesterday about the upcoming negotiations meeting. Two things stuck Bongo as interesting. First of all, Bongo heard the Wednesday meeting was requested by the DISTRICT, and not the teachers, so for Julie Hunter to suggest that that the delay in meeting was not the fault of the HEA... well it's not quite true. Second, look at the comments that follow the piece (of course now that Bongo is pointing readers to the comments he has no doubt the HEA will have teachers post anti-school district negotiator rants...). The first 13 comments are pretty much solid in favor of the BOE standing firm on their proposal.

Again, teachers, look at what's going on around you. You do not have the support of the community and you do not have the support of the local media.