North Cook News

Palatine taxpayers are up in arms over a new union contract that locks in giant raises -- and multimillion dollar pension payouts -- for public school teachers and administrators.

One of the school board members who approved the plan, Gerald D. Chapman, is currently collecting a $234,745 per year, taxpayer-funded pension himself, or $19,562 per month. That’s the 25th-largest school pension in Illinois, according to a report last December by Taxpayers United of Illinois, a government watchdog group.

Chapman worked in Township High School District 211, which includes Palatine, Conant, Fremd, Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg high schools, as a teacher, principal and superintendent before retiring in June 2001 at age 57.

Over a 36-year career, Chapman saved a total of $196,925 -- or $456 per month. Taxpayers United estimates he’ll receive $6.59 million in pension payments over his retirement. He’s already received more than $2.58 million -- or 13 times what he contributed.

On April 13, Chapman and the Palatine Community Consolidated Elementary School District 15 board approved an unprecedented 10-year contract for its teachers that would guarantee raises of 34 percent.

Chapman earned $284,500 in his last year working for District 211-- or $393,429 in today’s dollars, $32,786 per month.

He was elected to the CCSD 15 School Board in 2007, but was bounced as president in 2011 after trying to borrow $27 million in bonds and raise property taxes without a public vote. A petition drive put the bond request on the ballot, where it was defeated by a 2-1 margin.

Chapman was appointed last March to fill a vacancy left by the death of Richard Bokor.

The school district denied a Freedom of Information request by the Daily Herald seeking a copy of the new teacher’s contract, the formal details of which have yet to be made public.

CCSD 15 Superintendent Scott Thompson, who supports the deal, says it will encourage higher-paid, older teachers to retire. He plans to replace them with younger, cheaper ones.

But critics say those retiring teachers will just become a bigger burden -- and on all state taxpayers, not just in Palatine.

“The new contract (puts) an even greater strain on the state’s pension system,” state Rep. Tom Morrison (R- Palatine) and state Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) said in a joint statement. “District 15 gets about $20 million annually from the state of Illinois. If there is anything certain in Springfield these days is that nothing is certain.”

Morrison and Murphy say property taxpayers would be on the hook to live up to these rich contract terms, should state aid to District 15 fall -- and this is just one of many local budget pressures.

According to the Illinois State Department of Insurance (DOI), at the end of 2014, Palatine had a deficit of more than $90 million in its pension funds for firefighters and policemen.

The Palatine Firefighters Pension Fund faced a $45.6 million funding deficit and the Palatine Police Fund was underfunded by $44.58 million, according to the DOI’s biennial report.

Palatine police officers saw their salaries grow 35 percent from 2005-2014. Their total average compensation in 2014 was $120,604, including their taxpayer-funded pension contribution.

Palatine firefighter salaries grew 34 percent over the same period. The average firefighter compensation in 2014 was $130,160.

In addition to his pension from District 211, Thompson, 59, currently earns $253,558 in salary and receives 3 percent raises annually, per his contract. He plans to retire in 2019 and will start collecting another taxpayer-guaranteed pension.