Story posted Thursday, January 28, 2010
Big Cuts Loom In School District 21
By RICHARD MAYER Assistant Managing Editor
In the coming weeks Wheeling Twp. Elementary School Dist. 21 board members will determine what needs to be cut from next year's budget in order to balance revenues and expenditures.
Some possible cuts totaling an estimated $2 million could include terminating approximately 34 full-time teachers and/or eliminating all extra-curricular activities such as sports, clubs and other social events.
According to Daniel Schuler, assistant superintendent for planning, the board is considering nine different categories that total approximately $4 million in costs along with the possibility of implementing grade level centers (GLC) and/or eliminating one school.
Grade level centers allow all district children of the same grade level to attend the same school.
Schuler said if the board decides to eliminate one school it would be Riley Elementary in Arlington Hts. due to having the lowest enrollment out of all of the district's 13 schools. That school serves approximately 315 kindergarten through 5th grade students.
According to Schuler, eliminating Riley would save the district approximately $650,000.
"The only problem with that number is it's a rough estimate because there would be an increase in cost for transportation," said Schuler.
Schuler said none of the district's buildings have the capacity to house all of Riley's students in one place, so those students would be dispersed throughout other schools.
The district currently operates its schools by neighborhood. There are nine elementary schools that feed into three middle schools. The proposal is to create a GLC within the current three-feeder structure. An example Schuler gave would be to have students from Whitman, Twain and Frost elementary schools eventually attend Holmes Middle School.
However, that proposal encompasses students transitioning from one school to another four times. One of those schools would house K-1st grade students, next would be for grades 2-3, a third for grades 4-5, and a fourth for grades 6-8.
Board members at last week's school board meeting asked for both issues, GLC's and possibly eliminating one school, to be brought back to the district's finance committee to look at those two issues in more detail. Schuler emphasized that neither concept would be implemented for the 2010-11 school year.
Short-term, which could be implemented in time for the 2010-11 school year, board members are contemplating increasing class sizes from an average of 22-23 now to 30 in elementary schools and 32 in middle schools. In doing this, the recommendation would be to eliminate 34 full-time teachers with a savings of $1.7 million.
In regards to programs, the board is looking at eliminating all extra curricular activities, which include athletics, social clubs and other activities such as band, chorus, and student council.
"We have never charged kids to participate in extra curricular programs," commented Schuler.
An additional $1 million would be associated with eliminating all extra curricular activities including staff supervision, which occurs before and after school and during bus pick-up.
The school board has scheduled a special meeting workshop on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. tentatively at London Middle School in Wheeling to review additional information and take additional public comments.
The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Thursday, Feb. 18, and Schuler said if the board's work is not completed by that meeting, they will need to make decisions regarding next school year at the regular school board meeting in March or conduct a special meeting right before or after that March meeting.
"There is a statutory deadline for us to notify staff there will be no position for them next year," said Schuler.
That deadline is 60 days before the last day of school, which is approximately Apr. 7.
There are 13 schools in the district, which house approximately 7,000 Pre-K-8th grade students and approximately 800 employees.
Dist. 21 serves portions of northern Arlington Hts., southern Buffalo Grove, most of Wheeling and small sections of Mt. Prospect and Prospect Hts.
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