Post by WeNeed3 on Mar 18, 2009 6:24:22 GMT -5
D203 gives notice to 300 workers
Sixty-two teacher positions included in cuts
March 18, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
Naperville School District 203 informed almost 300 employees that they will be laid off at the end of this school year.
During its Monday meeting, District 203's board approved the dismissal of 218 education support personnel and 77 certified staff, 62 of whom are classroom teachers.
Each year, by March 15, school districts must notify all employees whose contracts will not be renewed for the coming school year. This year, "because of enrollment declines and economic concerns," that list is longer than it has been in the past, said Superintendent Alan Leis.
Leis stressed, though, that the district has not changed student-to-teacher staffing ratios.
"We're trying to make conservative projections so that we don't end up overstaffed," Leis said. "If we have the kids then we can bring back the teachers."
The district anticipates an overall enrollment decline of 200 to 300 students, but, said Leis, there are "anecdotal reports" that some parents who send their children to private, parochial schools "might make an economic decision" to send their kids to public ones next year. Such switches could offset the projected enrollment decline, Leis said. .
Still, Leis said he doesn't think many of the dismissed teachers will be hired back unless something happens demographically.
"I am taking a more cautious approach in terms of laying people off, but I expect some of these people will come back either because of resignations or because of jumps in enrollment in certain areas or whatever," he said. "So I've said to those people that, in the end, we're probably not going to be able to hire all of them back, but I'm hoping it is not going to be quite as devastating as it is right now."
Who'll handle enrichment?
Among these dismissals were four elementary level music, art and physical education teachers, and roughly half of the assistants working with students in the district's elementary enrichment programs.
Leis said these lay offs occurred because the district is in the midst of determining how it will now staff its elementary enrichment programs.
As elementary enrollment declines, schools' art, music and physical education teachers find they have fewer classes to teach in a week than they did in prior years, Leis said. So, to fill their days, these teachers must either travel from school to school, or take on other responsibilities, perhaps those held by enrichment assistants.
"So it's not that we're not going to be providing enrichment, it's who is going to deliver it," Leis said. "Should we be hiring instructional assistants, should we be using our music, art and P.E. teachers, or should we be using some combination of both."
Leis said these groups will work together to determine which approach is best, and that some of these employees will likely return to their positions next year.
Margie Griffith, first vice president of the Naperville Education Support Professional Association, the union representing the district's education support personnel said spoke on behalf of the pink slipped enrichment assistants during the meeting. Griffith said "enrichment assistants provide an essential and needed enhancement for K through three students prior to those students entering the gifted program once they become fourth graders," and that NESPA believes "the direct service to students and a well-developed, effective program should not be relegated to staff members as other duties as assigned."
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1480702,Dist203-layoffs-NA031709.article
