Grayslake District 46 looks at staffing options to save money

Grayslake Elementary District 46 officials are grappling with how best to stretch money for employees in the 2015-16 academic season.

Superintendent Ellen Correll is offering four options for the school board's consideration. The packages range from a $350,000 annual cost savings with a combination of personnel hirings and cuts, to another proposal that would add $75,000 in expenses.

The elimination of six or so full-time teaching positions for a projected $275,000 annual savings would be part of all four plans outlined by Correll. Board members are scheduled to vote on the proposed reductions Wednesday, March 18.

"We expect with retirees and staff who may leave during the summer and get new jobs or move away, that probably in the end, all the staff we have now will end up with a job," Correll said at last week's school board session.

Board member Jim Weidman said District 46 has much to prepare for concerning its next budget.

"With us not knowing exactly how things are going to go down in Springfield at this point, I think we need to be a little bit cautious, especially if they start talking about freezing property taxes for X amount of years," Weidman said.

Money has been a concern at District 46, which has a current budget with total revenue of $39.8 million and $40.1 million in expenses.

The proposals are:

• A projected $350,000 savings for 2015-16 through the additional reduction of four assistants who worked one-on-one with special education students. As part of the plan, a social worker would be hired for Park School Campus in Round Lake, which serves kindergarten through eighth grade, and a writing assistant post filled through reassignment of a teacher at Grayslake Middle School. Correll said an elimination of the assistants won't affect special education services, because the students who were assigned one-on-one help are gone or graduating this year.

• Total savings would be a projected $150,000 under the second option, which would include the hiring of four instructional coaches in addition to changes in the first option. Such coaches are teachers with content and instructional experience in areas including reading, writing and mathematics, according to Correll.

• Correll said she recommends a third option, which would provide a total estimated savings of $25,000. That package would include the hiring of an assistant superintendent on top of the proposed cuts and hirings in the first two options.

She said an assistant superintendent would provide her with much-needed help "as we're moving forward trying to be in the top 10 percent of all the schools in Lake County."

• Under a fourth option, the district would add $75,000 in expenses with the addition of a human resources director in combination with all proposed additions and cuts in the other options.