Huntley District 158 proposes $1.1 million in new hires

Huntley Area District 158 will need to hire as many as 17 new staff members in the 2012-2013 school year to keep up with swelling enrollment numbers.

Much of the growth is expected at Huntley High School, where 10 new teachers would be hired, said Jessica Lombard, the district’s chief human resource officer.

The cost of the new hires will total about $1.1 million.

“Districtwide it is not because of new students,” Lombard said. “If you look at our kindergarten numbers, they’ve been relatively flat. Our growth is at the high school where there are more freshmen coming in than seniors going out.”

In the 2012-2013 school year, Lombard said, the high school is expecting 668 incoming freshmen and 546 graduating seniors. That rate will continue in the 2013-2014 school year with 729 freshmen starting and 541 leaving.

The high school positions will be determined once students have completed signing up for courses and administrators have reviewed the areas in which teachers took on overload courses, Lombard said. Overload courses are in addition to the five classes teachers are typically assigned.

The estimated cost for the 10 high school positions is $530,000.

In addition, the district plans to hire staff to work on learning strategies for struggling students, a middle school media specialist to meet literacy needs, two technology assistants, additional special education and English Language Learners staff, as well as a part-time assistant principal at Leggee Elementary School.

“Our goal is to keep class size averages near the same as this year,” Lombard said.

The board will take action once the hires are brought forward, Lombard said in a memo to the board.