Well, it’s a start. Back last fall when District 208 officials and teachers at Riverside-Brookfield High School were beginning negotiations on a new contract, we suggested that it was high time that the contract start reflecting the reality of the private sector by having teachers contribute something to the cost of their individual health insurance premiums.
In their new five-year contract, approved last week, teachers for the first time will chip in something to defray the cost to tax payers for health insurance premiums. The amount, $250 per year, is perhaps more symbolic than anything, but the door has been opened and shows that teachers at RB are willing at last to give a nod of recognition to what the rest of us in the private sector have had to deal with for, lo, these many years.
The District 208 board and teachers should also be commended for holding down salary increases over the life of the contract. Of course, only in the world of suburban education is a guaranteed average annual raise of over 5 percent during an economic recession holding the line.
However, that’s far less than teachers have received annually over the past half decade, so we’re happy to see that the board is trying to look out for taxpayers’ interests as it heads into a bleak financial future-one that eventually will force the school district to come, with hat in hand, to voters.
There’s no guarantee that voters will give the school district what it’s going to ask for in a referendum. However, it’ll be a lot easier explanation for District 208 officials, who can show that for now, they have been able to hold a tighter rein on personnel costs-the single greatest expense for the district.
Reduced rail?
The prospect of fewer slow, long trains cutting through North Riverside and Riverside on the Canadian National railroad tracks is a welcome one. There are no guarantees that a potential merger of the CN and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway will be approved-there’s plenty of opposition in far west and northwest suburbs-but cutting train traffic in half through our towns has an undeniable appeal.
Whether the two trains a day that will be left are the ones that alternately wake us up at 4 a.m. or make rush hour miserable at 4:30 p.m. we don’t know.
What we do know is that probably the two best things that could happen are making sure the signal switches work properly and designating the line a quiet zone.
There are too many gate malfunctions that interrupt traffic and too many blaring horns from Harlem Avenue to First Avenue. Fix those problems and you’ve done better than cutting the number of trains from four to two a day.
We’re not holding our breath.