St. Charles school board fails to ratify agreement with outgoing superintendent

The Daily Herald and the Kane County Chronicle report:

The St. Charles school board failed to reach a decision today about whether to ratify a 2-year-old agreement with outgoing Superintendent Barbara Erwin.

The special meeting, which immediately went into closed session just after 9 a.m., was the second this week that had ratification of Erwin's amended contract as an agenda item. The board met behind closed doors for nearly three hours before returning to open session and adjourning without a decision.

The contract came into question in recent weeks because of uncertainty over whether the school board had approved an amendment, in a public session as required by law, in April 2005. That amendment included a provision that would credit Erwin's pension with 85 sick days at the start of each contract year, which begins July 1.

Former Board President Bobbie Raehl raised the issue at her final meeting and the Kane County State's Attorney's Office is investigating whether an Open Meetings Act violation occured.

Current Board President Kathy Hewell would not answer questions about what was discussed or say whether any particular concerns kept the board from voting. Two members left district offices to return to work before the meeting was over.

Meanwhile, Erwin said ratification of the agreement is “a matter of principle.”

But the potential consequences for board ratification have changed since 2005. When the board considered her contract at that time, districts were not prevented from awarding generous numbers of sick days to superintendents. A new law designed to protect the integrity of the Illinois retirement system, PA 94-004, effectively put a stop to that. Districts can still grant excessive sick leave to their superintendents - but not without paying a hefty penalty for doing so.

Contracts signed before June 1, 2005, which includes Erwin’s contract amendment, were "grandfathered." But if her contract were to be altered now, it might lose its "grandfathered" status, and the district could be required to pay a large penalty for granting her an excessive amount of sick leave. Some fiscally responsible board members apparently have a problem with that.

Failure of the board to follow the law in 2005, has left the current board in a pickle.

Even if the agreement is ratified retroactively, Erwin would need to return to Illinois for about a year of work in public education to become fully vested in the state’s retirement system.

She told the Daily Herald today that she has no such plans.


“This is about integrity now,” she said of her desire to have the agreement ratified anyway.

Hewell said the board might meet again next week to discuss the issue.



Erwin is scheduled to take over as Kentucky's education commissioner on July 16. Earlier this week, board President Kathy Hewell said Erwin had moved up her last day in St. Charles from Aug. 4 to July 13.



The Kane County Chronicle promises more in Saturday's paper.

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More local comment on the issue:

"Bill Russin" wrote:
" I think you'll find it's much worse than "just" 85 days. Typically they accumulate up to 297 before they "must" cash them in. She probably has quite a few "more" perk sick days. You may also find that most of your "Administrators".... (Asst. Admin., Principles, Asst. Principles etc.). have very sizable sick days "banked". Our tax dollars at work "for the kids".

"myidea" wrote:
" I think the govt finally stopped the sick day loop hole. Admin are only allowed 15 days a year now. Such abuse of the system is paid by all tax payers in the state. Many school districts have negotioted contracts like this to all our expense and at no cost directly to the school district itself. I think she should offer to let the sick days go and just leave town, she's NOT entitled to anymore money and if it was voted on today, well it couldn't be voted on today with those terms because those terms are now NOT allowed. "

"AreYouKiddingMe" wrote:
" Why would we pay someone to stay until August 4 when the original start date had been July 1,seemed odd to begin with. New hires start on July 1 and and administrators increases begin on July 1. Again, what extras would be given to stay beyond the original start date? Makes you wonder who on the board benefited from this contract and originally in on the hiring. Would be interesting to have someone divulge the dollar amount attached to 85 sick days."