Dist. 204 rehires 44 teachers

Indian Prairie Unit District 204 has rehired 44 of the 145 teachers it released in March.

The district was able to bring the teachers back as a result of retirements, resignations and contract concessions, officials said Wednesday.

Indian Prairie Education Association President Val Dranias said the union and district worked hard to bring back as many teachers as possible and she hopes even more will be able to return.

The 44 teachers who were rehired include every fourth-year teacher and many of the third-year teachers released in mid-March as part of the district's austerity plan. At that time, teachers and some board members were angry with the decision to release fourth-year teachers who were close to reaching tenure.

In Illinois, state law grants teachers tenure after four consecutive years in the same district. A nontenured teacher is employed year-by-year, while a tenured teacher's contract automatically renews and can only be terminated for "a specific reason."

"It was very important that we worked to get those fourth-year (teachers) back," Dranias said. "But it's not just because of the tenure issue. The district has invested a lot of money into training these teachers to be the best around, so you don't want to lose all that."

Assistant Superintendent for Business Dave Holm said the district was able to rehire the teachers - despite facing a $21.4 million deficit next year and being owed $14 million by the state - by plugging holes left by retirements and resignations, instituting a $108 fee for music students and rolling back the original plan to increase elementary class sizes from 29 to 31 to a class size of 30 in the recently approved contract.

"Capping the class size at 30 was huge for us because that gave the district the clearance to bring back between 16 and 23 teachers depending on enrollment," Dranias said. "We made a lot of concessions to get that and it will benefit students immediately."

In May the district was able to rehire the full-time equivalent of 70.5 staff members whose pacts were not renewed because their positions were part-time or funded by grants.

"Although we eliminated 145 positions, we non-renewed 197 positions," Holm said. "Some of those teachers have been offered work for next year as well."

District 204 covers portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield.