U-46 union, superintendent detail concerns in budget cut plan

There's been one big elephant in the room during recent Elgin Area School District U-46 budget forums and school board meetings: the teachers union.

As part of at least $31 million in budget cuts next year, the 2,500-member union will lose hundreds of members to layoffs, the district's chief financial officer has warned. Class sizes will increase, and duties for the teachers who remain will likely shift.

On top of everything else, teachers' current three-year contract is set to expire in August.

Elgin Teachers' Association President Tim Davis this week discussed with the Daily Herald the union's major concerns moving forward. We asked Superintendent Jose Torres his thoughts on those same points.

Little fat to cut?Davis: "Before we entered this period of severe financing difficulties, U-46 was already a lean operation. We aren't over-staffed in the classroom. So to further reduce the ranks of teachers I think is going to have a negative impact on the ability to provide the services to our students."Torres: "We are also on common ground with U-46 already being lean. There are still efficiencies that we're finding, however. For instance, I recently learned we were offering full-time benefits for people working just 20 hours. That's an efficiency we should have been looking at very closely and now we are. I think there must be more of those in the district ... are we lean in the right areas."Where will fired teachers go?Davis: "Many U-46 teachers will be (laid off), and that's taking place at the same time other districts are doing the same thing. In 2003, when U-46 was facing a $40 million deficit, teachers who were fired were able to find employment in other districts. And many of them returned to U-46 later. But that will be very different this time."Torres: "Frankly I'm not an employment agency, and that's not the charge that we have. It is unfortunate that people who've gone to college and studied teaching and wanted to come teach in our district might be displaced. We've invested quite a lot of money in the people that are going. But, because of the board and the (teachers union) agreement we have the layoff process that we have. There is a conversation nationally that perhaps when we go through RIFs, we should go through by evaluations, not seniority and tenure. The union is not ready for that, obviously, and I'm not ready for that myself. Yet. It makes sense to cut those who are the least productive."State funding woesDavis: "We're concerned about the lack of action in Springfield from our legislators to address the state's ongoing fiscal crisis."Torres: "I'm obviously frustrated, too, but I've had to focus on what I can do. I can't completely focus on what somebody else's responsibilities are. People want us to take the lead on one bill or another. I can't control that."Solid high school offeringsDavis: "The ability to offer a comprehensive high school program is being significantly eroded by cuts. As we heard at a recent school board meeting, one concern is the impact this is going to have on high school students who must cap courseloads at six classes, not seven. It also is going to impact the elective courses. There needs to be a conversation if we want a comprehensive high school, if that's of value to the community." Torres: "We don't have our high schools where we need to have them anyway. Yes, our dropout rate has decreased and scores have gone up recently, but the economy has changed so that we're not developing workers for the factories anymore. We're developing knowledge workers and we still don't have the structure for that. To say that the comprehensive high school has served us well, I think that that's a stretch."Supporting teachers in new rolesDavis: "We're also concerned about the district's ability to support teachers in programs that have been disrupted. We will have teachers that will be recalled, but not to where they've been teaching previously. Sometimes in a RIF situation you can spend a couple years teaching English and you find yourself being recalled to a different social studies positions. While you're certified, there's a learning curve there. How will you support teachers making that change (with even less resources)?"Torres: "That's a huge challenge. That's created by, the idea was, when we were going up through the ranks, as a teacher you wanted to have multiple certificates so you had more opportunities. They're not going to be able to ask to teach social studies unless there's a certificate in social studies. But some teachers have gotten other certificates simply as an insurance policy. Now the concern is, are they going to use it, and they're not prepared. There are some fixes to that. Some negotiation, right? We've created the system. There is a social studies teacher more prepared to teach that class, but they have less tenure. And they're being let go because they have less tenure. That's why that's happening. There are fixes to that, but it doesn't make everyone happy. The ones who lose out are the students."