Dist. 300 layoffs present challenge for class sizes

Community Unit District 300 will have a difficult time maintaining current class sizes next year, when the district could be short about 100 teachers, district and union officials said Tuesday.

The teacher reductions will come primarily in three forms:

• 39 nontenured teachers will not return next year because of performance-related issues. Of those, 25 resigned, according to the district's teacher's union. The school board dismissed 14 others Monday.

• 32 nontenured, first-year employees who teach general education at elementary schools will be laid off at the end of this year.

• 30 staff vacancies will not be filled, saving an estimated $1.5 million in salaries and benefits, according to the district.

The 101 job cuts would account for about a nearly 8 percent reduction in the district's teaching staff, which currently stands at about 1,300.

The cuts will help mitigate a possible budget shortfall, district officials say, though district projections show District 300, could potentially afford to rehire all 32 nontenured teachers.

The layoffs are the first since 2005, when District 300 dismissed about 220 teachers in the face of a $27 million deficit. After voters approved a tax increase in 2006, the district was able to rehire the teachers.

Superintendent Ken Arndt said general-education elementary school teachers were targeted for layoffs because the district has little difficulty finding qualified applicants for those positions.

"It's much easier to add an elementary, general-education position in August," Arndt said. "It's difficult, if not impossible, for upper grades."

Under an agreement between District 300 and the district's teacher's union, the 32 laid-off teachers will have the first pick of general-education openings at district elementary schools.

"We will not hire from the outside until everyone who was released is given an opportunity," union President Kolleen Hanetho said.

District officials expect to know whether they can rehire teachers by June - when they will have a better grasp of student enrollment and state funding next year.

"It is budget-dependent and dependent on whether or not we need them," board President Joe Stevens said.

While officials said the district would try to shuffle teachers around to ensure the layoffs do not affect some schools more than others, they conceded keeping class sizes constant will be difficult.

"Class sizes may very well have to increase," Hanetho said. "The workload on the teachers may have to increase."