THURSDAY
Jan uar y 29, 2015 • $1 .0 0
‘THIS IS COUNTRY MUSIC’ Parmalee, The Swon Brothers to join Brad Paisley in DeKalb / C1 HIGH
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Kish board, faculty approve contract By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com MALTA – Kishwaukee College Board of Trustees approved a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the faculty union Wednesday that included higher pay and better retirement and health benefits for teachers. While the agreement ends a 10-month negotiation process that almost resulted in a strike, it could lead to new tuition increases for students beginning this summer. Trustees will decide on a potential tuition hike in March, Chairman Bob Johnson said. Under the three-year agreement, faculty will receive a 2 percent pay increase plus an additional $1,250 for the first year, a 2 percent increase plus an additional $1,450 in the second year, and a 2 percent increase plus an additional $1,650 in the third year – an average annual increase of about 4.5 percent. “The board recognizes this pay increase is higher than nor-
mal, but we were committed to making our faculty’s salaries more competitive with our peer institutions,” Johnson said. The average full-time faculty member at Kishwaukee College earned $57,354 last year, which is about $14,000 less than the average community college faculty salary of $71,153, according to a report issued this year by the Illinois Community College Board. The faculty’s supplemental retirement plan and health insurance benefits also were restructured under the collective bargaining agreement. The college will now pay up to $450 a month toward a retiree’s health insurance for seven years after retirement. A previous collective bargaining agreement provided for the college to pay retiree health premiums for 10 years. “This benefit is very rare in higher education and almost unheard of in the private sector,” Johnson said. “The board made it a priority to reduce this liability.”
Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Board of Trustees Chairman Bob Johnson holds a vote Wednesday to approve the collective bargaining agreement reached between the faculty and administration at Kishwaukee College. Because the contract was ratified, there will be no work stoppage. Under the agreement, the college will pay 90, 80 or 75 percent of insurance premiums for faculty who elect the single, single-plus-one or family coverage, respectively. While faculty electing to participate in the single coverage plan will pay more under the
agreement – they previously paid nothing – those insured under single-plus-one and family coverage will pay less, according to a news release. The college’s last best offer, proposed last month, included an average 4.1 percent annual increase for four years, coupled
with increasing employee contributions to single health coverage by $430 a year, although single-plus-one and family health coverage rates would decrease. The board unanimously approved the new agreement in a public meeting that lasted about two minutes, with Johnson, along with trustees Kathleen Spears, Bobbi Burke, Linda Mason, Bob Hammon and student trustee David Hahn voting yes. Two members – Ken Doubler and Kathleen Watkins – participated in the meeting via conference call but could not vote. The closed session beforehand, where board members reviewed the agreement once more before voting, lasted almost an hour. About six of the union’s 81 represented faculty were in attendance at the open board meeting, including union president and Kishwaukee College
See AGREEMENT, page A6
NEW MEASURES AT AREA SCHOOLS TARGET INTRUDERS, SEX OFFENDERS
Agreement at a glance PAY: n Year One: 2 percent, plus $1,250 a year n Year Two: 2 percent, plus $1,450 a year n Year Three: 2 percent, plus $1,650 a year SUPPLEMENTAL RETIREMENT PLAN: n Kishwaukee College will pay up to $450 a month toward a retiree’s health insurance for seven years after retirement. HEALTH INSURANCE BENEFITS: n Single: 90 percent of insurance premiums paid by the college n Single-plus-1: 80 percent of insurance premiums paid by the college n Family: 75 percent of insurance premiums paid by the college
Rauner among top campaign donors Study finds governor ranked in U.S. at state level for 2014 By SARA BURNETT The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Visitors to DeKalb High School must provide main office receptionist Onessa Navejas a government-issued ID to be scanned into the school’s new Raptor System, which performs an abbreviated background check on the visitor. Signage on outside doors and in the office Tuesday remind visitors of the new policy.
Stepped-up security By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com Visitor sign-in sheets and manual calls to police are out of vogue in some area school districts, as officials look for more efficient ways to keep students safe in schools. In DeKalb School District 428, visitors’ IDs are run through a system that performs a mini-background check to make sure they’re not sex offenders. Meanwhile, Sycamore District 427 this year installed a system that works like a fire alarm, but alerts police in case of an intruder. “We hope we never have to pull it,” Sycamore Operations Manager Kreg Wesley said. “We hope this was more of an insurance policy. But if we do have an intruder event,
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we’re more prepared.” The system in District 427, known as BluePoint, looks like blue fire alarms. Each school has between 23 and 45 of the pulls, depending on the number of entrances to the building, Wesley said. If someone pulls the alarm, a prerecorded message from the school principal plays over the loud Kerri McCastland, dean of emergency planning for DeKalb High School, pulls up speaker telling everyone in the the text alert that the administrators and the student resource officer receive
See SECURITY, page A6
when there is a hit on a Raptor System scanned ID Tuesday in the school’s main office.
CHICAGO – Multimillionaire Bruce Rauner was one of the top donors in the U.S. to 2014 state-level political campaigns, sinking more of his own money into his successful bid for Illinois governor and other races than almost any organization or person nationwide, a new study found. The Republican businessman wasn’t the only Illinois name to appear on the list of the top 50 donors released Wednesday by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity. GOP hedge fund manager Ken Griffin and the Illinois Education Association also were among the country’s largest campaign contributors, thanks largely to Rauner’s contested race with Democrat Pat Quinn. The analysis doesn’t include races for U.S. House or Senate, and isn’t a complete accounting of all money spent because disclosure rules and deadlines vary from state to state. But it gives a clear picture of how Illinois was home to some of the election cycle’s biggest spenders. Here’s a look at some of them.
RAUNER Rauner, a private equity investor who was sworn into public office this month, contributed more than $28 million from his personal bank account, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the state. The Center for Public Integrity analysis shows that was more than any other individual, and dwarfed only by contributions made by the Republican Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association. More than $27 million of Rauner’s
See MONEY, page A6
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