District 21 prepared to make major cuts Thursday night
District 21 officials are getting ready to make some tough decisions tonight (Thursday).
"I expect by the end of the night the school board will know the direction they want to go," said Superintendent Gary Mical. "A lot is tied into teacher negotiations that are ongoing."
Mical couldn't comment further on the negotiations which affect about 600 teachers. He did say a resolution could happen "very soon."
Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 is facing a $12 million deficit and will have to make some serious cuts before the next school year.
More specifically, the school board will have choose from eight cost-saving 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.
Long-term, District 21 must take even more drastic steps, officials say. Closing one school outright would save $650,000 per year. Switching to grade-based schools would save only $400,000 because transportation costs would go higher, said Daniel Schuler, assistant superintendent of planning.
"It's a painful process," Mical said in an open letter to District 21 parents. "We have been fiscally responsible but the difficult economic times that the country is facing have trickled down to our administration, and it will be very difficult to balance the budget without making cuts."
District 21 board member Arlen Gould said the board will trim a few options from the eight currently on the table.
No matter what the board does, it will probably involve laying off some teachers, he said.
"Salaries and benefits are 80 percent of our budget," Gould said. "I can't imagine where else we'd find the kind the savings we're talking about."
A final decision about the cuts will come in March, Gould added.
About 400 people attended the Jan. 21 school board meeting, where parents mostly defended the district's extracurricular activities and class size.
Besides the economy, school officials blame 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 in 2010-2011 as it does in 2009-2010.
District 21 has about 700 employees and a yearly operating budget of about $100 million. About 80 percent of the budget pays for salaries and benefits.
The District 21 school board meeting will start at 7 p.m. at London Middle School, 1001 W. Dundee Road. The meeting has been moved to the school's gym to accommodate the crowd.