Geneva teachers union files intent to strike, but local watchdogs aim to keep union demands in check

Like many school systems across the state, Geneva Community Unit School District 304 is likely to endure a teacher strike, but the result from the Geneva strike could be very different thanks to a team of about 20 citizen watchdogs who are keeping a sharp eye on the bottom line. The group, known as Geneva...

Like many school systems across the state, Geneva Community Unit School District 304 is likely to endure a teacher strike, but the result from the Geneva strike could be very different thanks to a team of about 20 citizen watchdogs who are keeping a sharp eye on the bottom line. The group, known as Geneva Tax Facts, has been watching school board meetings and looking over financial records for years, keeping tabs on where tax money goes. The group’s website is chock full of financial data and informed opinion.

The financial data is disconcerting and Geneva Tax Fact members are appropriately alarmed. According to local activist and Geneva Tax Facts co-founder Bob McQuillen, about two-thirds of Geneva residents’ property taxes go to the school district. Not only are local property values falling, but the district is also about $300 million in debt. Debt service is around $15 million per year – a hefty amount for a community of just more than 26,000 – and these costs are expected to creep up to almost $25 million by 2019.

At the same time, negotiations between the school district and the Geneva Education Association are at an impasse, and both sides are preparing for a work stoppage. Many of the union’s contract demands – like a continuation of regular pay increases tied to seniority and post-graduate classes that teachers take, plus across-the-board pay hikes– threaten to make a bad financial situation worse. There’s also a demand that the district increases teacher salaries by 6 percent a year for the last three years before a teacher retires, a provision specifically designed to maximize pensions. Tax rates in the suddenly struggling community are liable to go up just to pay off existing bonds; the last thing the community needs is for school expenses to go any higher. Pension spiking could be especially expensive if the state makes local school districts more accountable for teacher pension costs (As we believe they should).

So Geneva Tax Facts did what any good watchdog should do: it barked, loudly and persistently. And it has had an impact on the discussion.  (Check out the comments on this Patch article from a few days ago). Geneva Tax Facts could make a huge difference in how the strike is settled.

“The teachers’ union assumed they had the support of the community, which is not the case,” McQuillen said. “The Geneva community has supported the teachers with everything you could ask for and now they want more. The days of a blank check are over. The taxpayers can no longer afford it.”

Teacher strikes are as much about politics as they are about labor relations. If the school board believes the public is backing the union, they inevitably back down. If the school board sees that the public backs their efforts to keep costs in line, they are far more likely to stand their ground and wait for rank-and-file teachers to lose their enthusiasm for the union cause. The Chicago Teachers Unioncame out on top of their strike a month ago, largely because parents and taxpayers did not fully understand what was at stake. The result in Geneva is liable to be different.