District 225 adjusts teacher accommodations, numbers to decrease in second semester
This story has been corrected and updated to add that second semester begins in District 225 on Jan. 19.
The number of certified staff in Glenbrook High Schools District 225 allowed accommodations to teach from home due to COVID-19 will shrink dramatically for the second semester, the District 225 board revealed on Monday.
From 237, or 44% of the district's 533 certified staff granted first-semester accommodations on the basis of child care, personal medical or family medical reasons, that number will decrease to 144 staff, or 27% for the second semester.
This will be effective Jan. 19 when second semester starts and, as currently planned, Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South return to hybrid learning from an adaptive pause from in-person learning.
An announcement was made to staff on Dec. 2. All accommodation requests were to be submitted by Dec. 11, though a number of medical documentations remain outstanding.
In work that District 225 Supervisor Dr. Charles Johns said has gone on "for a number of weeks," child care accommodations have been eliminated. The family medical accommodation is now specific to family members living in a staff member's household and requires new application forms to submit for approval. The personal medical scenario requires a teacher to submit a new application for approval.
The numbers of staff who were on family medical accommodation in early November was 64. Moving forward that number is 42, though it "could be lower if medical documentation doesn't satisfy," said Brad Swanson, District 225 assistant superintendent for human resources.
Personal medical numbers increased slightly to 102 for the upcoming semester from 90 previously. The 102 includes 32 staff who have yet to provide medical documentation, including nine who have selected possible Family Medical Leave Act designation and six who would take unpaid leave of absence, Swanson said.
Based on the November figures, that leaves 83 staff members formerly on child care accommodation.
Swanson said 32 staff members have indicated they will possibly not return to school. Some will not qualify under the new guidelines; others might go on leave if their medical accommodation is not approved by a Jan. 4 deadline.
"My point is to the instructional supervisors and the building administration to play it most conservatively," Swanson said. "We have to somewhat assume - and we can't predict who right now - (how many) might go on a leave and would need a replacement staff."
He said job descriptions and postings have been sent to "about 12 different locations." In addition, Advocate Staffing is helping in the replacement search.
"Tomorrow (Dec. 15) will start the time in which now the instructional supervisors are brought in to start looking specifically at applicants that match the needs that they have, now that they know who the names are."
All academic areas contain people who will be taking a leave, and the early returns on the job postings have been "very favorable," Swanson said.
"We have a fair number of applicants at this time, which is encouraging, especially since we're going to need to be very efficient in our hiring process."