Barrington Dist. 220 board says district should hire more teachers

Concerned that some elementary school classrooms would be too crowded in the coming school year, the Barrington Area Unit School District 220 board told administrators to hire up to five more new full-time teachers than originally planned, which might tighten the district's budget.

During the discussion, which lasted for just over an hour, the board weighed the importance of class sizes versus the budget.

“As you guys know I've supported the small class sizes, that's preferable, but on the other hand you're spending a lot of money here,” board member Chris Geier said. “It's easy to say we'll find it in the budget, but I need to know how we are going to do that before saying I'm fine with adding another $400,000.”

Superintendent Brian Harris said there are certain administrative expenses, such as professional development, that the district could do without for a year if it needed to hire more teachers.

Linda Klobucher, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said administrators currently project to have 25 more elementary school students in the district than last year, but that alone is not the reason the district might need to hire additional educators.

“Certain elementary buildings at certain grade levels are over guidelines. You could go to another school and that grade level would be below guidelines,” Klobucher said. “It really is based on the students that walk in the door for that community.”

Among the eight elementary schools, each of which are kindergarten through fifth grade, only six class sections are above guidelines.

A few parents whose children attend North Barrington Elementary school voiced their concerns at the meeting that the district wasn't doing enough to ensure proper class sizes.

But after the meeting, parent Kristen Cimaglio said she thought the board did a great job giving consideration to the class size issue.

“I was happy with how (the meeting) went. I hope that it translates into getting an extra teacher in our classroom,” Cimaglio said. “We're lucky in this district because we have great teachers. But I do have concerns as (classes) get larger because you don't want to see anyone get lost.”

Harris said he would work with each elementary school principal and other staff members before coming to a decision on hiring more educators.