U-46 lays off 19; some to be rehired

In a third and final round of layoffs for the current school year, the Elgin Area School District U-46 board voted to release 19 nontenured teachers and support staff Monday night.

The district laid off 132 employees in February and 180 in March, for a total of 331 (including the latest round).

The layoffs were not prompted by recent budget pressures, officials say. Like other districts, U-46 often releases nontenured staff in the spring so it has more flexibility to adjust staffing based on funding levels and student enrollment.

“These are more to protect ourselves,” district spokesman Tony Sanders said. “Some will be brought back. If (certain) grant funds come through, those teachers will be brought back.”

The district cut about 400 full-time positions last year as part of $30 million in budget reductions.

The district does not yet have an estimate on how many teachers will be recalled but hopes to call back teachers before the end of the current school year.

“Our goal is to begin recalling as soon as we can when we finalize our budget and once we know what our state funding is going to be,” Sanders said.

U-46 has not increased class sizes for elementary schools. And while the district raised some of its high school class sizes, those increases will be balanced by smaller classes for high school freshmen, Sanders said. That means that overall staffing at elementary, middle and high schools should not change noticeably next school year.

Whether the district is able to bring back laid-off teachers will depend on whether the district receives grants for certain specialized programs, like those that serve low-income students. Teachers with experience in U-46 will get preference over outside applicants for open positions, Sanders said.

Seven of the 331 employees, however, will not return because they were dismissed for cause, Sanders said. The total also includes people who were hired on a short-term basis this year to cover for teachers on extended leaves of absence.

One group that was mostly spared by this year’s layoffs is early childhood teachers, who are typically released each year.

Sanders said that though the state has delayed the payment of early childhood funds, the district decided to keep most early childhood teachers (it has more than 40) because of the aggressive student achievement goals in its Destination 2015 plan.

“It was the realization with Destination 2015, having (nearly) all first-graders reading at grade level, you can’t get there if you don’t offer early childhood for your most at-risk students,” Sanders said.