Pay cut for teachers at Island Lake’s village-run preschool

Employees at Island Lake’s village-run Creative Playtime preschool will see their salaries cut, while staff and parents seek ways to boost falling enrollment.

The village board on Thursday voted 4-1 with one trustee absent to impose a one-year salary cut of 25 percent for all preschool employees, including Director Sharon Hyde. The minimum wage for the staff will be $11.50 per hour.

Trustee Shannon Fox, who leads the board’s parks, recreation and education committee, said the preschool also hopes to save money by not filling an office coordinator position and putting two teachers on standby because the school did not have enough students for their classrooms.

Fox said the preschool offers nine sessions, and the teachers could return if the school is able to generate interest for the next sessions and build enrollment.

With the changes, the preschool hopes to save $23,731 this fiscal year, said Fox, who added she would not have cut the teachers’ salaries if it wasn’t necessary due to lack of revenue.

“I didn’t want to risk the board shutting us down, so this is the step I had to do,” she said. “I asked the teachers to make the sacrifice. They love the program. They love the kids, and so they agreed to do it.”

The preschool hopes to build enrollment through a marketing campaign, including creating a Facebook page.

Teachers also are taking the initiative to start an extended day program. As part of the Tuesday and Thursday program, parents can choose to have their child stay an extra two and a half hours for an additional $14, Fox said. Through this extended day program, the curriculum is enhanced and children get more interaction with teachers.

The school has not had enough enrollment to offer afternoon classes, Fox added. But through teachers’ effort to promote this, the program recently attracted eight children, enough to create a new class.

“We’re hoping if we can get that rolling again we can build up our program to the status it had once been,” she said.

Trustee Laura Rabattini, who voted against the salary cut, said the staff had already taken a pay reduction the previous year, and some teachers have not returned.

“You can only squeeze so much out of a person,” she said. “There is a value for what they do.”

Rabattini said she understands cutting teacher salaries is one way to reduce expenses, but there should be other ways.

“We continue to show in this village that we don’t want to pull up our sleeves and do the hard work,” she said.