Musick: Saad serves as Blackhawks’ piano man
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2014
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D-155 deal gets board approval Costs for teachers’ salaries, benefits expected to increase 7.1 percent over 3 years By JEFF ENGELHARDT jengelhardt@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – The Community High School District 155 Board ratified a new contract with its teachers’ union Tuesday, ending a lengthy and difficult negotiation that carried a threat of a
strike for the first time in the union’s history. The new three-year contract will increase expenditures 7.1 percent for teachers’ salaries and benefits over the life of the contract, with no raises beginning until the second year of the deal. The contract is retroactive to July
1, 2013. T. Ferrier, assistant finance superintendent, had estimated earlier that District 155 would spend an additional $500,000 for every 1 percent increase to teacher salary and benefits, meaning roughly $3.5 million more could be spent in the new contract.
However, the district is decreasing the amount it covers for employee contributions to the retirement system from 96 percent in the first year to 50 percent in years two and three. Full step and lane movement on the salary schedule will begin in the second
year with the salary schedule adjusted to reflect the teacher-paid portion of the Teachers Retirement System contribution. Only one increase to base salaries will occur and it will be capped at 50 percent of the Consumer Price Index in the third year.
“From the start of this process, the board has always maintained its great admiration for our teachers and their efforts and abilities,” board President Ted Wagner said. “It’s been a tough go.” Justin Hubly, president
See D-155, page A7
Church leaders hid child sex abuse
Tenants fight for rights
The ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Bill Zieske and his wife Denise Halverson moved from Chicago in May to Woodstock in hopes of a strong community and an art-centered environment to thrive in. Since then they have been dealing with a Woodstock landlord they’ve accused of property damage from neglect of needs, consumer fraud, breach of the lease and assault, among other claims. “The best thing to do is to talk to people,” Zieske said. “People only get away with things if others don’t talk about it.”
Experts: Renters have options in disputes with landlords By SHAWN SHINNEMAN sshinneman@shawmedia.com Denise Halverson would want it in writing. If she could do it over, Halverson would make sure those promises of maintenance – now part of a court case Halverson and her husband, Bill Zieske, have filed against their Woodstock landlord – were more than just verbal.
“I think we would have done a lot different,” said Halverson, reflecting on the experience. “You think you’re dealing with a person who seems honest and trustworthy. We didn’t really do a lot of research.” Zieske and Halverson’s battle has tilted toward the extreme end of tenant-landlord disputes, but such disagreements are hardly rare. In the fall, when the couple
gathered an informal group of renters to speak for greater tenant rights at a Woodstock City Council meeting, they heard from families that accounted for some 40 leases. Longtime renters tend to develop their own stories of landlords who’ve abused their power: the dishwasher that never worked, or that time the deposit was withheld without explana-
tion. Often left up in the air, though, is whether that power is real or a guise formed by someone more informed of the law. The answer – depending on who gives it – is a little of both. “There’s not very much law and it’s not very good and it’s not very protenant,” said Shannon
“You think you’re dealing with a person who seems honest and trustworthy.” Denise Halverson Renter who filed a suit against her and her husband’s landlord
CHICAGO – Top leaders at the Archdiocese of Chicago helped hide the sexual abuse of children as they struggled to contain a growing crisis, according to thousands of pages of internal documents that raise new questions about how Cardinal Francis George handled the allegations even after the church adopted reforms. The documents, released through settlements between attorneys for the archdiocese and victims, describe how priests for decades were moved from parish to parish while the archdiocese hid the clerics’ histories from the public, often with the approval of the late Cardinals John Cody and Joseph Bernardin. Although the abuse documented in the files occurred before George became archbishop in 1997, many victims did not come forward until after he was appointed and after U.S. bishops pledged in 2002 to keep all accused priests out of ministry. George delayed removing the Rev. Joseph R. Bennett, despite learning that the priest had been accused of sexually abusing girls and boys decades earlier. Even the board the cardinal appointed to help him evaluate abuse claims advised George that Bennett should be removed. “I realize this creates a rather awkward situation, but I believe I need to reflect on this matter further,” George wrote in a Nov. 7, 2005, letter to an archdiocese child protection official. Also against the advice of his board, George
See TENANTS, page A7 See ABUSE, page A7
LOCALLY SPEAKING
Elias Andrade H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
DISTRICT 300
ALGONQUIN
SUPERINTENDENT LEAVING IN MAY
VILLAGE FINALIZES BOND REFINANCING
After three years at the helm of District 300, Superintendent Michael Bregy will leave the state’s sixth largest school district in May to head a Highland Park district. Board members from North Shore District 112 voted to hire Bregy as their next superintendent during a meeting Tuesday evening. For more,
With the refinancing of $2.9 million of debt, the village expects to save about $250,000 in interest payments over the next six years. The village on Tuesday finalized a bond refinancing, which took place in an effort to obtain lower interest rates. The bonds were originally used to build the public works facility. For
see page B1.
more, see page B4.
McHENRY COUNTY: More cold weather expected this week. Local&Region, B1
WEATHER HIGH
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14 -2 Complete forecast on A10
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