Barrington schools brace for coming staffing cuts

Barrington Unit District 220 is aiming to make the elimination of 13 full-time positions as proportional and painless as possible, Superintendent Tom Leonard said.

Five or six retirements are playing their part toward this effort, as well as some shifting of personnel and responsibilities, Leonard said.

"There are only a handful of people who will not get rehired back for next year," he said. "This is going to be less than 1 percent of our staff that's going to be reduced."

The financial woes making these cuts necessary are not of the district's making, Leonard asserts, but are tied to the economic downturn and its effect on the rate of inflation. The inflation rate has a direct impact on local governments' property tax revenues.

But since the decision was made last month to eliminate 13 jobs, school officials have sought keep the cuts proportional among elementary, middle and high school levels and to be fairly equal between certified and noncertified staff. Some administration jobs could be affected as well.

Officials also want to have as little impact on class size as possible. Nevertheless, average class sizes in some places will increase slightly, Leonard said, though he noted class sizes have been relatively small already.

The loss of some support staff may also make things a little tougher on the teachers who remain, though their job descriptions won't change as a result, Leonard said.

The board will vote on Leonard's recommendations Tuesday night, but all those facing the possibility of losing their jobs will have been informed before that, he said.

And the elimination of a position won't necessarily mean a job loss, Leonard explained. For instance, one elementary teacher whose position is being eliminated will replace a retiring teacher in a different job.

The district's addition of Mandarin Chinese to its world language department is having no effect on the number of teachers in that department as the number of students studying languages will be approximately the same.

Cutting personnel is seen as a last resort after other avenues of cost-saving have been explored, including the renegotiation of energy costs, Leonard said.

Nevertheless, the cuts are seen as a way of getting through the year ahead only, and the possibility exists that the economy may get worse before it gets better, he added.