Whatever Geneva.... pretty pathetic.

The Charge of the GEA

Step and lane, step and lane,
Step and lane onward,
Into the unemployment line
Rode the four hundred.
"Forward, the GEA!
"Hubris will win the day!"
Into the unemployment line
Rode the four hundred.

"Forward, the GEA!"
Community all dismay'd,
All but the teachers knew
The union had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the unemployment line
Rode the four hundred.

The audascity of expecting a raise ! teachers are guaranteed one that system stinks union stinks

Welcome to REALVILLE teachers. I don't think the U-Haul truck moving "personal items" in the middle of the night, sob stories about missing Bears' games, or other such things has helped your position. No work - no pay. Basketball season is upon us. You think the parents of kids who play sports are going to support you? I think you have "jumped the shark" with your hard positions. You have lost the PTO's who have worked their rears off to support you. In other words--you overplayed your hand. Look at neighboring communities--they took a freeze. YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. This is NOT CAMELOT.

Why wait until Tuesday? The BOE negotiating team seems to be dragging this out purposely!

The election over and the insanity of divide and conquer marches on. This feels more like union building than educational professionalism and individual financial needs.

Why wait til Tuesday, ahh...let's see, because they have a life outside of THEIR VOLUNTARY position on the board. Let them enjoy their weekend - they deserve it. They don't want to drag this out anymore than the GEA does.

What really pisses me off is that my 9 year old is being taught through all this that when you don't get exactly what you want in life, it's ok for you to just cross your arms and walk away..... i hope the kids get to see the lesson of consequence here as well.

I am seriously questioning Carol Young's statement that the BOE is "unwilling" to meet over the weekend. Maybe they are, by district mandate, UNABLE to meet unless they have held a public meeting to inform the taxpayers of the negotiation status.
This doesn't seem like an "unwilling" group of people...they've already been willing to interrupt their lives for this process.
I hope there are is a crowd of community members at the meeting Monday. Hoping no parent feels that their presence would affect the way their child is treated in class when they return. Am I a dreamer?

If It were about the children you would take the freeze because of the Economy.You have been over compensated for years! Your free ride is up!!!!

I am so sorry that the teachers we have enjoyed so much over the years have apparently completely lost their grip on reality. Thank you to the volunteer board that has tirelessly devoted many, many hours to attempt to reach an agreement. The community is here to assist you in replacing these teachers with other wonderful, competent teachers willing to work hard for good wages without the involvement of the rapacious union.

How does pay for the teachers work during a strike? I'm assuming they don't get paid by the district, correct? I wonder how long they can last?

Thank you to Board of Education for hours and hours of service. You do this as public servants (unpaid). The teachers need to do what they feel is right. I just have a feeling that the GEA leaders are not speaking for the majority of the teachers. Now they will all have the cold, scary feeling that so many Geneva citizens have experienced when the "check" doesn't happen. Hope it resolves soon. BOE stand firm.

DC.... my husband has taken pay cut after pay cut this past 2 years.... and yet, he still gets up and goes to his job everyday in working to support his family. If he were to go "on strike" he'd be replaced in about 24 hrs.... just like so many of us in this economy. And for the record, when I said "pretty pathetic Geneva"... it was AT the striking teachers..... i do have a clue, thank you very much!

What's interesting is that I happened to talk to a board member this morning who said that last night's session was a waste because the GEA mainly spent time eating pizza. There was limited effort to negotiate.

2 sources for current District 304 salaries:
1.http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/5679128-418/illinois-teacher-and-administrator-salaries.html?appSession=148335652698299
2. http://www.familytaxpayers.org/ftf/ftf_district.php?did=13158&year=2011
Look at the leadership of the GEA. President & Vice President (Young/Wise) make almost $200,000 combined-with almost 50 years experience. They're both looking at retirement and if they "spike" their last 3 years (as has been done in the past) they're going to get a sweet deal!

It wouldn't matter if the BOE agreed to meet with the GEA 10 more times. There should be no more meetings and while I don't believe anything the GEA states, I think they are lying about the BOE not wanting to meet. Here is something all of you I heart Geneva teacher sign holders should know: The GEA announced to the BOE that they were going to strike at 11, yet the police were called due to suspicious activity at one of the schools at 10 PM. The suspicious person was a teacher in the classroom removing some personal items. GIVE ME A BREAK...THE GEA WANTED THIS STRIKE ALL ALONG. Oh, and for the small amount of teachers who were against the strike...I'm sorry that your "leader" didn't allow you to voice your opinions at your meeting. Terrible! Who knows how many other teacher's would have joined in if just a few stood up against this whole thing. MOB ACTION at its best. Shame on you, Carol Young! REPLACE THE TEACHERS WHO SUPPORT THE STRIKE!

Am I the only one that read the article that stated the GEA has accepted the Boards offer of a freeze in the first year of a contract? You can't say the GEA is being unreasonable if they are accepting a freeze in the first year. It would be interesting to find out what the sticking point is now.

My son plays basketball, and I guarantee you, he will NEVER forgot this! Sorry teachers, this is the legacy you will live with one young, future leader of America.. "Walk out on your students, athletes, parents and district when they most need you, and when it is most important to THEM not YOU!"

We chose Geneva, for the schools, the community, the people we met, and most importantly, because we thought we had found a place with similar values and ideals as ours.. This most certainly entices thought and reflection on that decision.. Schools are important, but community is what drives the world.. people don't choose Geneva just for the schools.. frankly this area has excellent schools, it is the community that provides differentiation.. not schools.. the comments below encourage our selection, just wish the teachers were paying attention to the community!

Fire up the recruiting engine.. being new to Geneva, I can GUARANTEE you there are teachers out there willing to work for a fair wage and ridiculously good benefits!

Dave - In answer to your question: No work = No Pay! I'm real curious to see how long these teachers last on an actual picket line? (Monday's forecast high temp is 36 deg, by the way). I hope the school district enforces the no picketing on school property statute recently enacted!!! Seeing a couple of them hauled off in cuffs would be beautiful and real eye opener to the other union lemmings. Also, let's see how long they last knowing they will not be receiving their last two scheduled pay checks prior to Christmas?? Stay strong BOE, once true reality hits the teachers while they're standing in the cold, my prediction: They will cave within a week (max)!!!

According to published reports, both sides met for 18 hours this week. Before those meetings both sides said that progress had been made. The board president said that there was agreement on about 90% of the issues. If after 18 hours of talks that 10% could not be overcome, talking over the weekend wasn't going to bring a solution. Remember the GEA representatives are compensated for their time, the board members are not. Words like unwilling, good-faith, advance the cause of fairness, regret taking this action are only buzz words designed to fan the flames. Don't fall for buzz words.
The BOE had taken it stand and now needs to move on with other important matters like the tax levy. The teachers need to accept responsibility for their actions, and I did say teachers. Those that disagree with striking have had their opportunity to stop the GEA's actions. They have failed to take a public stand on disagreeing with the GEA. Unless someone speaks out, nothing will change.
On Monday, the BOE will discuss the tax levy which will financially affect every Geneva School District property owner. The community needs to request that the BOE approve the lowest tax levy possible. Monday night is the first step in developing the 2013-14 school year budget. Read the attached and voice your opinion on Monday.
https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=33094918 No matter what happens, your property taxes will increase next year.

Don't lump all Geneva teachers in with union teachers. Not every Geneva teacher is in the union. I've spoken to a few who are not in the union, are against what the union is pushing for, are happy to have a job, and will be at work on Monday for the students.

It's easy to talk about teachers as one group, but they aren't.

Imagine going to work and negotiating your salary and benefits in the same manner as the GEA approaches this negotiation. Pay me more for the same amount of work or I'll walk away until you agree to my demands. In the real world you'd be laughed at and replaced. I hope this is a wake up call to the GEA. They are in no way looking out for the best interest of the students or the community.

Unions began as a way of protecting workers from unfair and unsafe labor practices. In this day and age we have agencies like OSHA and the EEOC that police those issues. Modern unions have become much too powerful and are simply a legal form of bullying. Workers in the private sector aren't allowed to dictate to their bosses what they will and won't do. This is a free country, If you don't like your job or your benefits go someplace else. Don't make the children and families of this wonderful community suffer because of your greed.

I just want to know why the GEA's statement and the BOE's statement are so different? Are these 2 groups at the same negotiations?

Silence - I guess I am missing your Animal House analogy.

The email address for the Board of Education is
Board@Geneva304.org.
for those who would like to share their support directly with the BOE.

Why would any new teacher want to come to a community full of teacher haters?

Please remember that this strike will be over one day - to no ones complete satisfaction. All that will be left then is the acrimony being created here and elsewhere. Please remember that the posters and those who have a life an can not spend their days here are our neighbors and friends. Hopefully they will be after this is over as well. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and no ones is better because they shout louder. Watch what you say and how you say it. It children are learning mostly from your example, make it a good one.

Thank you to the Board for your volunteer work. Also thank you to the school administration for organizing an excellent plan for those parents who must work. I believe it is a tactic of the union/teachers to delay the negotiations as much as possible and in the end, simply wear them down. Please do not give in, and hold firm on years 2 & 3.
Many in the community are unaware of this website, so email your neighbors and alert them to the conversation that is taking place on the Patch.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what the BOE's position on the tax levy is?

Very respectful timing too- the teachers have dissed the Veteran's cermonies planned for Monday.
A lasting lesson in character we will not soon forget.
Replace them all!

I can't understand how anyone could discuss ANYTHING for 11 hours. It's time for the BOE to say "this is what it is, take it or leave it".

Tom Fortune (but of course not your real name):I'm not the only one who finds it weird that a teacher would be loading up "personal" items into a U-Haul truck after 10pm. Jeff Ward reported this and police were called (and the vehicle stopped) so they thought it was suspicious. And capital letters--maybe it's a necessity because the union obviously doesn't understand what REALVILLE is--that place out here where the real unemployment rate is over 14%, where foreclosures continue, where 10,000 teachers are registered with the Reg. Sup of Schools to find a job, where taxes are strangling those homeowners who are still able to stay in their homes, where many professionals can't find employment in their field and take whatever low paying job they're lucjy enough to get, and on and on and on. REALVILLE isn't a pleasant place--it's tough out here, and I'm sorry, but I'm kind of tired of the whiners who have good jobs lecturing us about how they are entitled to more and more. Again, I wouldn't mind paying them more if they REALLY worked 12 months like the rest of the working world. No one who posts here hates teachers and we're all sick and tired of being accused of that and all the other stupid accusations flying around. We're all tired of the entitlement mentality that has become pervasive in too many (but not all) public employees. We're circling the drain financially in this country and until we admit we have serious problems we're never going to be able to solve any problems.

Come gather 'round Genevans
Wherever you live
And admit that the unions
Around you are out of hand
And accept it that soon
You'll be taxed to the bone
If your money to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start fightin’
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come BOE and homeowners
Who stand by your actions
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't settle too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come elected officals
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come teachers and educators
Throughout the land
And don't follow
What you can't defend
Your demands and threats
Are beyond your command
Your old union system is
Rapidly agin'
For the times they are a-changin'.

Actually, Silence, if that is your real name, the educational system seems just fine, it's the financial system that is screwed up - and very little of that is the fault of the teachers.

Well said Angela and Bob! (The poet who didn't know it.)

BOE- pull the deal, cancel the Sunday meeting, and move on.

The time has come to move forward without being held hostage by a group of unionized malcontents that make demands that go against the very charter of the community.

Character counts my A**!

Now see, Robert, you are not playing nice. The community has a charter?

They preach Character Counts all the way from Kindergarten.

Where is the Character of demanding a community to lie about the final three years of pay in order to personally gain in lifetime income benefits paid by state tax payers (apparently soon to be brought back to local level)?

And then to try to portray it as being in the students' best interest and for attracting quality educators? There is no Character in that fraudulent act. It is an act to defraud tax payers and take from what they view as an endless supply of money.

I call that a charter, whether you agree or not, it is what they preach, but they clearly do not practice what they preach.

When does a student get a C moved to an A in the final years of school in order to advance to a better college ? They don't because it clearly has not validity. Same for pension pay- the demnad has no validity. The IEA should be ashamed of itself and the public should be outraged.

Wow, some of you people have the same tune as that radical 20th century group called the Tea Party. Please tell me we don't have Tea Party loons in Geneva.

Robert, you do know charter and character are two different things? And no one lied, the BOE changed its mind. You want to get really angry look at the retirement package of the administrators not covered by the unions and also the legislators who already have you paying their pensions.

Dear Bob "Dylan" McQuillan,
You missed your callin', man. See ya on the quad at the district sit-in; I'll be the one wearing the dashiki and strummin' the tune "Like a Rolling Stone" and singin':
"Once upon a time, Geneva felt fine,
You fed the schools prime on your dime, didn't you?
FACTS'd write, say, 'Beware, taxpayers, you're bound to bawl,'
You thought Bob & Co. had lost it all, were wet all through..."
Ah, heck, I give up. Where's Pete Seeger when ya need him?

Bob,
Are you satisfied with the finance committee's recommendation? Like everyone, I can't imagine paying anything additional in taxes. Are there other options? Need a quick & dirty education on the tax levy situation -

I love Robert's analogy of "grade spiking" a C to an A in a student's final year, so they can get into a great college. If this were to happen, that student would be expelled in a heartbeat...don't we all agree? That kid didn't earn that grade simply because he stayed in school until his senior year.
And we think it OK to "pension spike" a teacher's salary simply because the teacher stayed on the job until his/her senior year?
Neither person earned the advantage given them, yet we are willing to overlook
the teacher scenario.
If I didn't see it happening right in front of me, I just wouldn't believe it could happen.
Hey, BOE...I think you should start WITHDRAWING your offers, the longer this continues. That's movement in the negotiations!

Happened to drive by Williamsburg at 11:50pm tonight to see a teacher loading up her car with boxes. Why even bother meeting on Sunday when the teachers are hell bent on striking?

Let me tell you all the story of a teacher named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day;
He put ten cents in his pocket,
Kissed his wife and family,
Went on strike with the GEA.

But did he ever return?
No, he never returned,
And his fate is still unlearned.
He may picket forever on the streets of Geneva
He's the teacher who'll never return.

Charlie's union asked for so much
In a fiscal crisis,
That we'd go spiraling down the drain.
That is when the Board of Education
said, "No Deal."
Charlie fell off the gravy train.

But did he ever return...

All day long Charlie walks with the teachers,
Crying, "What will become of me?
How can I afford my 3 month summer vacation
Or to gas up my SUV?"

But did he ever return...

Charlie's union goes down
To Geneva High School
Every day from 7 to 4.
But the union read things poorly
So they have no income
as replacements stream through the door.

But did he ever return...

Now, you citizens of Geneva
Don't you think it's a scandal
How the people have to pay and pay?
Fight the step and lane, tell the board to stay strong!
And let's stick it to the GEA

And he will never return...

Look at http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php We have a grade school Librarian making $109,550. A middle school gym teacher making $108,453.00. A 5th grade teacher making $100,061.00. It sickens me to think these people want more from us. Replace them with eager college graduates. Let these greedy teachers go and try to find a job that pays that well with the benefits they have in this economy.

Good one, Silence!

Ok, class-
Today we give out grades.
Johny- nice work- you did everything right and perfect! And you did extra credit!
Jimmy, you showed up.
Susie- you did not show up, but a mediator found that you were not technically negligent.
Ralph- you smoked dope, drank in school and urinated on the floor.

Congratulations! You all get C's - it is part of the union contract.

And Ralph, for the next three years, since you are now in High School, you will get A's, no matter what you do!

In fact, Johny- you may want to ratchet it down a bit - hard work does not get you any further - but be a good union member - remember- we are all in it together! We do not need anyone to try to be an individual around here! You are making Ralph and the others look bad. You have been removed from coaching.

There have been some posts/questions regarding teacher pay during the strike. It's our understanding GEA teachers will receive their normal pay for the first five (5) days of days of the strike. After that, they will receive no compensation. (Bob M - You're the most knowledgable on the strike issue, can you confirm this? Thanks again for your posts and information. It's very much appreciated.

I doubt that either Dylan, Seeger or the Kingston Trio would like to be associated with the anti-teacher lyrics. Still, some real effort there and not without some wit. Let's hope the strike is settled so everyone can get back being proud of our community - together.

Wake up America and welcome to the progressive rejection of the Founding and the rise of the Bureaucratic Despotism.

Welcome back G Ryan,
Didn't think we would be hearing back from you so soon after Tuesday night. How did that go for you by the way? Your political prognostication skills seem a little rusty but if you predict Bureaucratic Despotism I guess we will have to take you at your word.

But respectively Thomas if all is changing then the GEA needs to keep up with the times. And as the tide turns, Illinois is broke, Washington D.C. is broke and thus so will be Geneva. If that is political prognostication then let the rust continue its tarnish.

hence 24 hour talking heads who never lose their jobs even when they're proven wrong.

This is to the Geneva Teachers: For educators who say this is all- about- the- kids, the greed and self interest you display is beyond disgusting. You are setting a poor example for our children. You can easily be replaced in fact, it is our understanding there are 10,500 qualified teachers just waiting in the wings to take your jobs. We can only hope!

The announcement will be made @ 5AM Monday.