Negotiators mum in Janesville
JANESVILLE — Call it pizza diplomacy.
Members of Janesville School District unions, school board and administration met for an hour and ate pizza Tuesday evening.
They agreed to meet again Thursday, Dec. 29.
The topic was sensitive: possible concessions by the unions to help the district balance its budget.
Spokesmen for both sides said afterward that they would not talk publicly about anything that was discussed.
"We agreed that the pizza was good," joked Bill Sodemann, school board president.
Nobody has said "no," acknowledged Dave Parr, president of the teachers union, but neither side would be discussing what was said at this and future meetings.
Parr was appointed spokesman for all three of the district's employee unions Tuesday.
Tuesday's discussion was cordial. "No yelling, no screaming," Sodemann said.
Asked if the groups were negotiating or whether they had reopened their contracts, Sodemann simply repeated that they would meet again Dec. 29.
The board in the past has asked the unions to make the pension payments that many other state and local government employees started paying this year. But if that issue was on the table with the pizza Tuesday, those who were there would not say.
A small number of school district employees—those not represented by unions—started making those pension payments earlier this year and are expected to contribute about $355,000 to the district this school year.
If all district employees made the pension payments, the district would save about $3.7 million this school year, according to district Chief Financial Officer Keith Pennington.
The payments amount to an estimated 5.8 percent of a worker's pay this year and 5.9 percent starting in January.
All three unions have contracts, with raises this year and next year, that run through June 2013. The contracts protect them from a new state law that requires other government workers to begin paying for pensions and in some cases to start paying more for health insurance.
The school district is facing a projected deficit for 2012-13 that could be as high as $10 million, officials have said. A big cut in state aid this year and next year is a major reason for the problem.
The school board already has voted to save perhaps $500,000 to $700,000 next year by increasing the maximum high school class size from 30 to 32.
The board raised fees, cut about 110 jobs and trimmed about $9 million in spending from the current year's budget.
Dec 22, 2011 at 1:52 p.m.
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well said Hillman.
Dec 22, 2011 at 1:47 p.m.
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lol sarah...I was going to say the same thing. then saw you beat me to it.
Dec 22, 2011 at 9:54 a.m.
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Fear, I have been reading your comments for quite awhile and finally need to react to your claim about the Fund 10. There are hundreds of accounts within the JSD budget. When costs exceed the budgeted amounts the dollars come from the fund balance, when costs are less than the budgeted amounts the excess goes to the fund balance. This happens in every category of the budget not just the health insurance category. Now having said that the health insurance category represents the second largest operating expenditure the district has, second to salaries. Now compound that with it is a self-insured plan(no premiums paid to an insurer like WPS, Humana or the like) the variability of excess claims, or claims under the budget compounds. Yes it is true that there have been years that the fund balance has had contributions from the health bugets, there has been years that the fund had to feed excess claims, some over $1,000,000. Additionally the fund balance is used for the ebb and flow of income and expenses and the district needs it to pay its bills while sometimes waiting for State aid, tax payments, medicaid remimbursements, etc. If the fund balance is lowered too much then the district would need to do short term borrrowing to pay its expenses. You state the balance is $25 million and some days it very well may be, but some days it is considerably less as operating expenses dictate. I applaud your zeal in the comments about collective bargaining, and Act 10 but finally am compelled to respond to your blanket claim that the Fund 10 balance exists largely because of "savings in the teachers self-funded insurance". That insurance plan has also taken away from the fund as well and your claim is only partially true.
Dec 21, 2011 at 8:43 p.m.
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Time to use the fund 10 money to plug these holes until the teachers will be forced by law to give up these things anyways. There is over 25 million dollars there largely money saved by the district on teachers self-funded health insurance.
The fact remains that the JEA does not trust this board, nor should they. The membership has to vote on these changes and they will never do that.
Even with the pension contribution there is still a 6-7 million hole? What is the districts solution after that? Still threaten layoffs , layoff, realize that their projections were completely off and try to call many of them back? Then we lose another group of great teachers because the district is playing games with money to push an agenda held by the few at the forefront of the board that treat this as their own personal government.
""The board raised fees, cut about 110 jobs and trimmed about $9 million in spending from the current year's budget.""
How many consecutive years will there be this big of a budget hole.
"The school district is facing a projected deficit for 2012-13 that could be as high as $10 million, officials have said. A big cut in state aid this year and next year is a major reason for the problem.""
Thanks Scott Walker, recall is coming soon.
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