U-46 announces plans to recall 200 teachers

Two hundred Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers will be getting an extra nice start to their weekends.

"We wanted to give you a quick heads up that the district will begin the first phase of teacher recalls on Friday," district lawyer Pat Broncato wrote Elgin Teachers Association President Tim Davis in a Wednesday evening e-mail, which was later forwarded to U-46 administrators.

Teachers will likely be receiving the news via phone, after school hours, Broncato said.

The 200 teachers, called back based on seniority, will be able to return to teaching positions next year if they are properly certified to fill specific vacancies.

Broncato noted that not all of those teachers may have the qualifications to be rehired, so it is unlikely that the full 200 will all get slots.

The district hopes to recall more teachers "on or before June 1, using the same method," Broncato said.

Exactly how many teachers will be rehired is unclear at the moment.

As part of $29 million in budget cuts, a total of 732 teachers were pink-slipped in mid-March. Chief Financial Officer Ron Ally has said U-46 intentionally laid off more teachers than necessary to pad itself.

"What we know is that we have positions we're going to have to fill. In order to make space for certification issues, you have to over-RIF," district spokesman Tony Sanders said. The positions available now are available regardless of funding. "We have them because we know the students are coming," he said.

More information about the recall will be shared with the union's general membership, which will meet Friday evening to go over the tentative one-year teachers' contract.

U-46 and the 2,700-member Elgin Teachers Association reached a tentative agreement May 8, after six expedited bargaining sessions. The deal, which members will vote on at school sites Tuesday, would keep salaries flat and increase both class sizes and case loads, creating savings for the cash-strapped district.

With teacher layoffs, the district conducted what it calls a "targeted reduction in force" - determining how many positions it will need in certain departments, and then cutting in those departments by seniority.

"We look at their teaching certificate," Torres told the Daily Herald March 12. "If (a teacher with seniority) is certified to teach social studies even though they've been teaching English, they may bump a less experienced social studies teacher. Certified nurses, too, might have an education certificate along with a nursing certificate. They could bump an elementary teacher."

Davis could not immediately be reached for comment.