District 21 faces larger classes, no extracurricular activities

Facing a possible deficit of $12 million, one Wheeling school district may drastically increase class sizes and cut all extracurricular music and athletic programs next year.

More than 200 parents attended a Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 meeting on Thursday. The school board will host another workshop Feb. 11 before making final decisions on what to cut in late February or early March.

School officials put together a list of eight options that would save the district a total of $4 million. The two biggest cost-savings choices would be to increase class sizes ($1.7 million) and to cut all before- and after-school activities ($700,000). The class sizes would be increased from 25 to 27 students per class to 30 students per class in the elementary schools and 32 students per class in the middle schools.

The school board is also considering cutting administrative positions, professional development and extra work stipends.

Parents like Dan Wellisch said the cuts will affect homeowners in the area.

"Our housing values are down enough right now, so why would someone move here if people perceive that our district is going downhill?" Wellisch said. "We will never get people to buy homes here."

Lanie Spivack said upping class size and eliminating extracurricular activities hurt kids who need the most attention.

"After-school activities are the only place some kids can shine," Spivack said. "And if you increase class size, test scores will plummet."

District 21 has about 700 employees and a yearly operating budget of about $100 million. About 80 percent of the district's budget pays for salaries and benefits.

"These decisions will affect staff," said board member Phil Pritzker. "We need to wrap our heads around that concept. There is going to be some kind of staff reduction."

Long-term, the district may have to close a school or abandon the idea of neighborhood schools.

Besides the economy, school officials blame their budget problems on tax caps that limit the district's ability to increase taxes for the 2010-2011 school year beyond 0.1 percent, which was the Consumer Price-Index from December 2007 to December 2008. This means District 21 will essentially have the same amount of money during 2010-2011 as it did during the 2009-2010 school year.

District 21 officials are in negotiations with their teachers union, said Bill Harrison, president of the school board.

"The longer we put off these decisions the worse it will be down the road," he said.

For more information on the possible cuts, go to d21.k12.il.us.

Cuts: Another potential target is Dist. 21 staff