BROOKLYN, Ill. – Illinois’ Brooklyn School District 188 is no longer on the state’s financial watch list after reducing its overall salary expenses and cutting down on unused sick day payouts over the last year.

The Illinois State Board of Education monitors school district finances and assigns a score to schools in financial trouble, and the Brooklyn School District 188 was assigned to the lowest of four financial health categories last year, the Bellevue News-Democrat reports.

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The situation meant the district was on a watch list, based on “financial indicators” that track things like deficit spending, or the amount the district spends for every dollar received during the previous fiscal year.

But in one year, Brooklyn officials moved the district off the watch list with a series of financial decisions focused mostly on changes to teacher pay and retirement benefits.

Superintendent Henrietta Young told the News-Democrat one of the most beneficial moves was to replace teachers who retired from the district with younger, less expensive educators.

“We also changed our contract language so that we were reducing the amount of money paid for sick days upon staff leaving the district,” she said.

Teachers unions across the country negotiate contracts with local school districts that typically include both automatic annual “step raises” and payouts for unused sick days when educators leave the district.

The “step raises” are not based on performance, but rather the number of years educators remain in the school system, with pay ratcheting up significantly during the first decade to 15 years of employment. Union contracts also typically award educators higher pay for accumulating college credits towards an advanced degree.

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The union “step and lane” pay system results in ever-increasing costs for teacher salaries, which usually comprise between 75 and 85 percent of school budgets.

Union contracts also usually award educators many more sick days than they use in a year, and allow educators to accumulate the unused sick days throughout their career. Upon retirement or leaving the school district, the union contract requires schools to pay out a specified amount for each unused sick day, often in the range of 25 to 100 percent of their daily pay.

In many cases, educators who saved sick days early in their careers are paid out based on their daily rate upon retirement, which is far more expensive because of the automatic “step raises.”

EAGnews has repeatedly detailed the union perks and others in school districts across the country, including many that are struggling both financially and academically.

Ironically, districts with some of the worst student test scores and graduation rates award educators automatic raises every year, while union officials who represent teachers fight against efforts to curb the unnecessary costs or transition to a more performance based system that puts students first.

In the Brooklyn district, the changes in teacher salaries and sick days meant the district moved from the state’s worst financial category to the second worst, though the state board will continue to monitor its progress closely in the coming school years, the News-Democrat reports.