Hundreds plead with U-46 board to consider human side of layoffs

Hundreds of Elgin Area School District U-46 employees turned out Monday night to implore the board to see the human side of the layoffs it was considering.

Less than a week after the announcement that the equivalent of 348 full time jobs would be cut in order to help trim $17 million from next year's budget, social workers, certified nurses, special education teachers, librarians and secretaries spoke out against the move.

Attendance was so heavy officials moved the meeting from the board room at district headquarters on Chicago Street to the auditorium at Gifford Street Alternative High School.

Public comments about the layoffs lasted for more than an hour. Members of separate employee groups, as well as dozens of parents, stood in solidarity as individuals spoke, applauding and comforting one another.

As part of the cuts, the number of certified school nurses will be reduced by 50 percent, from 44 to 22; with the district moving to employ more registered nurses, who can be hired at a lower hourly rate than certified nurses licensed to teach.

"Registered nurses cannot do the things we're certified to do. They can't teach about sex ed or germs. They can't conduct health assessments. Is this a prudent move for the district to make?" asked Laurie Kawa, a certified nurse at Bartlett Elementary.

Parents Sue and Rich Petrelli told the board of the school care that their daughter, Kristin, now a Bartlett High senior, has received for common variable immunodefiency disorder.

"If it wasn't for the nurses, Kristin wouldn't be here today," Sue told the board. "They have kept her alive."

Ten of 63 school social workers will be cut. So will the jobs of 48 special education teachers, 15 home school liaisons, five librarians and those of 68 teachers' aides.

"I sit here not as a social worker, but as a real person," said Lisa Soran, who works at Sheridan Elementary in Elgin. Soran, a single mother with two children in the district, was informed last week that she would lose her job.

"With fewer social workers there will be less time to reach out, to address resources. Consider the real, human impact those cuts will have," she urged.

Peg Miller, an administrative assistant at Bartlett High, spoke about the decision to remove six secretaries at each of the district's high schools, a 37.5 percent reduction at each school. The layoffs, she said, will create an unforeseen number of glitches during registration, parent-teacher conferences and graduation.

Silvia Stade, a district administrative assistant and wife of board candidate Ed Stade, told the board that the move was "the hardest thing they'd have to do."

"I just want to work," she said tearfully.

Board members acknowledged that the layoffs, the final round of which they approved later in the evening, were tough, but necessary.

The 348 cuts break down into a loss of 73 full time positions for district administrative employees. Four of those positions belong to district supervisors, two to directors, 11 to school administrators, six to deans' assistants and 46 to secretaries.

On the instructional side, 193 of 2,640 positions will be cut. Those include the aforementioned nursing, special education, social work, librarian and aide positions. Approximately 100 belong to union employees.

Eight percent - or 82 full time positions - of the district's operational staff will be cut. Among those eliminated positions are 13 bus aides, 25 bus drivers, one mechanic and three sign language interpreters, as well as several others.

Next year's tentative $427 million budget - a 1.4 percent increase over what the district is projected to spend this year - assumes no increase in state aid and flat property tax revenues. It also factors in a decline in interest on investments and a $17 million increase in negotiated salary and benefit increased for union employees.

"These reductions in force are being done in a manner that assumes a worse case scenario," Superintendent Jose Torres said. "When our revenue picture is clearer, we will evaluate all options, including recalling positions - it certainly is with a heavy heart that we're in this position. But it's not just one made by this district. We're all subject to this economy that we're in."