Amid financial uncertainty, Grayslake District 46 agrees to some staffing cuts
With the future of state funding uncertain, Grayslake Elementary District 46 officials have agreed to a staffing plan that will trim six full-time teaching positions, but save the district an estimated $375,000 in the next school year.
Officials said the planned staff reductions, which also include the elimination of five program assistant positions, will come through retirements and attrition.
Superintendent Ellen Correll had floated four staffing options for the District 46 school board's consideration. The choices included the plan leading with the $375,000 cost savings and another adding $75,000 in expenses with the hiring of new administrators, such as an assistant superintendent and human resources director.
The approved plan also calls for the reassignment of a Grayslake Middle School instructor to an English and language arts position, while a social worker will be added to Park School Campus in Round Lake, which serves kindergarten through eighth grade.
"It's not a position we're adding because we want to," Correll said of the Park School social worker. "We have to."
Responding to a query by board member Jim Weidman, Correll said the district likely has through May or June to hire an assistant superintendent for 2015-16, if deemed financially possible. She's said an assistant superintendent would provide her with much-needed help with District 46's goal of being in the top 10 percent of Lake County school systems academically.
"I know we need to wait to see what the state is doing," Correll said.