Dist. 21 cutting 16 teaching positions

Wheeling Township Elementary School District 21 will have 16 fewer teachers this coming school year, according to a staffing update that was presented at the school board meeting on Thursday.

Lynn Glickman, assistant superintendent for human resources, informed the board that there will be 13 less elementary school teachers in the district and five less middle school teachers, with two additional special services teachers coming on board.

Board member Phil Pritzker pointed out that by saving an average of $80,000 a year per teacher, the district can save more than $1.3 million.

"We're looking at how we can make some positive financial decisions," said Glickman, about the reduction in staff.

Glickman said their decision to cut staff is based on enrollment. She said that there was not a reduction in staff the previous school year. Kara Beach, a spokeswoman for District 21, said that it is premature to compare last year's enrollment number to this year's, because the district is continuing to enroll new students every day.

Also at the board meeting, a memorandum of agreement with the village of Wheeling was approved, with the district paying the total cost of a school resource officer for the nine months of the year, which is $67,000. In the past, the village and the district agreed to share the cost. The officer serves the two middle schools in Wheeling and is also available to elementary schools.

Pritzker said he feels school resource officers are valuable, but he believes the school district shouldn't be responsible for the full cost.

"As we've been saying for months and years, we need to put our priorities with our academics," said Pritzker.

Board member Arlen Gould said that he highly values school resource officers and he feels the community benefits greatly from having them in the schools.

"In this world we live in, there's nothing much more important than safety," said Gould. "The school resource officer can be an enormous help to the community."