Emotional Meeting Ends With 4-3 Vote to Release 363 Teachers

More than 1,000 students, teachers and parents packed the Westfield Community School gymnasium Wednesday night--many of them there to protest District 300's proposal to lay off more than 300 teachers.

Students chanted, “Save our teachers,” and others carried homemade signs. At one point during the night, an ensemble of students broke into song to display their love for the fine arts program.

Many students took the opportunity to express their appreciation for their teachers.  Some speakers handled themselves with composure, and others screamed and lashed out, at one point causing School Board Member Monica Clark to leave the room until the vote.

But after listening more than two hours as 80 people stepped up to the microphone , the Community Unit School District 300 Board decided by a 4-3 vote to issue release notices to 363 teachers.

Board members Joe Stevens, Karen Roeckner, Monica Clark and Karen Plaza voted in favor of the cuts. Board members Dave Alessio, Anne Miller and Chris Stanton cast dissenting votes.

“If we do not have a balanced budget now we will be guilty of the same actions as the state of Illinois,” School Board President Joe Stevens said. “If we are not fiscally responsible, this will only get worse in the future and the district would be shut down and run by the state of Illinois. I don’t think anyone wants that.”

District 300's Budget Crisis

District 300 is in the midst of a budget crisis as the state continues to lapse on payments due to school systems throughout Illinois. The district has only received one of the four payments from the state this year, Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Crates said.

Administrators are trying to bridge a budget gap of at least $5 million, in the best case scenario, and $24 in the worse case, much of which is dependant upon whether they receive any more payments from the state.

The board has a legal deadline for notifying administrators and teachers about their job status for the 2011-2012 school year. Releasing staff members now allows the board to "keep all options open" to balance the budget over the next few months.

By issuing pink slips to the 363 teachers, the board approved what was presented on Tuesday night as “option 1.” The option includes re-organization of the middle and high schools, possibly reducing the number of credit hours students are required to complete and eliminating elective courses with low enrollment numbers.

“The cuts will not increase class sizes,” Communication Supervisor Allison Strupeck said. “We fully expect to call back 60 to 80 percent of these teachers.”

Salary Concessions

Board members and administrators had hoped for $4.2 million salary concessions from employee groups, particularly from the teachers’ union, LEAD-300. The teachers’ contract expires in June, and, so far, there have been no negotiations, according to district officials.

Last year, every employee group at the district took pay freezes, and contributed more to their insurance payments. But teachers were unwilling to make any compromises, Crates said.

After 114 teachers were laid off for the 2010-2011 school year, the remaining teachers continued to received pay increases, step-pay increases and overload pay – additional money given to teachers whose class sizes exceed the district’s maximum standard.

“We are a sinking ship,” one speaker said. “We need to step up. I’m asking the teachers to stand up and take a pay cut and get rid of the overload payment.”

A show of hands revealed that most adults in the gym crowd were teachers. A couple hundred more onlookers watched from the adjacent cafeteria used as an overflow room.

Stevens said he has heard from several teachers this week that they are willing to sit down and work with school officials. He said he has faith that both sides can work together. However, state statutory requirements force administrators to provide teachers with ample “layoff” notice time.  

“This crisis is not of the district’s doing,” Stevens said. “I am hopeful we will sit down and have a fruitful conversation.”

“The passion for education has to be balanced by fiscal responsibility,” Stevens said.

Teachers Concerns

Still, some teachers were concerned about how quickly all the necessary changes are being implemented.

“One thing that concerns me is how fast they’re going to make the changes,” said Paula Anderson, a Jacobs High School special education teacher for 28 years.

“The superintendent is a superintendent-elect, and we have administration changes," Anderson said. "This gives us four months to make the changes. The last time we made a big change, we took two years for a group of teachers, students and parents to review it and implement it.”

When the meeting ended, several people in the crowd stood, hands on hips and displayed their protest. Many other students and parents hugged and cried in the hallways.

"This is very disconcerting," said parent Juli Agenliah, of Algonquin.