Posted on 09/04/2010 1:15:21 PM PDT by KeyLargo
Sep 3, 2010 10:04 pm US/Central
New Trier Daycare Center Raises Eyebrows
Some Critics Say Perk For Teachers Is Excessive During Tough Times, But Superintendent Says It Will Help Retain The Best Educators
Got A Concern? Send It To Jay Levine Reporting Jay Levine WINNETKA, Ill. (CBS) ―
They're at it again, say North Shore taxpayers.
The same school district that had its $174 million renovation referendum roundly defeated by voters just spent more than $500,000 on a daycare facility exclusively for teachers' kids.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine went out to see what that kind of money buys – and why.
With the snip of a blue ribbon Friday, a 30-year dream for New Trier teachers became a reality: a state-of-the-art day care center for their children.
The facility will take care of infants as young as six weeks old and preschoolers as old as 5. It cost nearly $700,000 to build out and furnish. And most New Trier taxpayers didn't know a thing about it.
"That's completely wrong," one resident said. "I don't get a discount on daycare, and my kids go to New Trier."
But Superintendent Linda Yonke, who led the dedication, called it well worth it.
"I know that the people of this community want to have the very best teachers, and this is something that will help us attract and retain the very best teachers," she said.
Critic Herb Sorock counters: "It isn't as though the district is wanting for applications here for new positions -- there's hundreds for every one."
In exchange for their day care center, teachers will work two extra days without pay this year -- a $450,000 benefit, the district says. But instructors won't be in classrooms with kids. Instead, they'll be in meetings with each other -- so-called professional development days.
There will be six of those this year instead of the usual four.
Yonke is coming off a bruising battle over a proposed $174 million renovation of New Trier's Winnetka campus. Voters overwhelmingly rejected that project.
For the daycare project, the rent-free space will help the private operator keep down costs to teachers. But it's drawing a similar negative reaction at a time when just down the street from the Northfield campus, "for sale" signs dot lawn after lawn, testifying to tough times for those paying the school district bills.
"There's no such thing as too much money spent in the school," Sorock said.
There's no question it's is a first-class facility. That's the New Trier way. The question some taxpayers ask is whether they can afford it.
CBS 2 found only one other government agency, Cook County, that is subsidizing employees' daycare by giving an operator free rent and users a break on cost. No other North Shore school districts do.
Contributing: CBS 2 Political Producer Ed Mashall.
Supertintendent Linda Yonke, left, cuts the ribbon Friday for a new daycare center for teachers' children.
In exchange for their day care center, teachers will work two extra days without pay this year -- a $450,000 benefit, the district says. But instructors won't be in classrooms with kids. Instead, they'll be in meetings with each other -- so-called professional development days.
There will be six of those this year instead of the usual four. CBS
I believe Winnetka (on suburban Chicago’s North Shore) is one of the top ten wealthiest suburbs in the country. This doesn’t surprise me. Move on, nothing to see here.......
Oh oh! I see it coming! Government regulations for all day care centers. Communist countries like to get them while still in diapers!
“In exchange for their day care center, teachers will work two extra days without pay this year...” I knew this was coming: “But instructors won’t be in classrooms with kids. Instead, they’ll be in meetings with each other — so-called professional development days.”
“Oh oh! I see it coming! Government regulations for all day care centers. “
This is happening. The govt. is starting to focus on faith-based daycare centers.
That may be on the agenda, but here I think you are missing which cup the pea is under. The issue here is special facilities for state employees, paid for by the public, but unavailable to the public. Next they'll have special, deluxe medical clinics for teachers and other state employees (just like for Congress). No illegal aliens allowed. No commoners, either.
That’s right, but due to it’s tax base and ability to pay high salaries for the “best” (aka furthest-left) teachers, New Trier has long held the opinion that it’s defecation does not emit any odor.
yes, I believe it is called “$hitting vanilla....” or something similar. This is also the suburb where back in 1988 a mentally deranged woman held hostage kids in one of their public grade schools, shooting and killing one of the children before later killing herself. Life isn’t as rosy as one might seem there; the North Shore has one of the higher student suicide rates in the country.
Incidentally, this was the Ferris Bueller’s high school.
A list of Illinois public school teachers salary.
New Trier District 203
http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php
Check it out...and barf.
IIRC Glenbrook North.
GBS ‘67
New Trier’s reputation as a strong academic school is well established. I remember (back in the 60’s and 70’s) people moving to the Northshore, figuring that they were saving money by not having to send their kiddies to an expensive prep school in the city.
(The prep schools were also very hard to get into).
That I didn’t address that segment of the issue, does not mean that I missed it. I certainly agree that teachers should not have special access to child care unless they pay for it, as the rest of the population must. Otherwise the actual costs should be added to their W2 forms as actual income.
I repeat my post #3. It is coming.
As pp stated there are significant government regulations for private daycares. The question will be if the government entities excuse themselves from their own regulations. Our school district in CO just added a before and after school care program, but the program can’t accept CPAC (welfare payments for childcare)kids because it doesn’t meet the government standards for a child care center!
Oops...should be CCAP instead of CPAC
Don’t you love how government agencies don’t hold themselves to their own developed standards which they thrust upon the private industry?!!!
"There's no such thing as too much money spent in the school," Sorock said.Typical educrat thinking and the root of a good deal of the troubles with schools today.
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