For Illinois teachers, uncertainty amid school budget woes (IL)

April 25, 2011

Hundreds of Illinois teachers got word this month that they might not be needed in the classroom come fall, fueling another round of uncertainty at schools battered by economic woes.

Pink-slipped teachers are scrambling to find jobs even as they wait to hear whether they might be rehired once financial projections and student enrollments firm up. Others survived layoffs but face the uncertainty over new assignments or schools.

The pressure-cooker has becom e a fixture of spring for many Illinois educators who are let go in March and April, only to be hired back months later. But it shows no signs of abating as school districts confront another round of state funding delays and the end of federal stimulus money that was intended to stave off the worst of the school layoffs.

A bill awaiting review by the state House could upend the long-standing practice by requiring that teacher specialties and classroom performance determine layoffs and rehires across Illinois, with seniority playing the role of tiebreaker rather than being the determining factor. Still, for educators caught in the cross hairs, the proposed changes offer little relief.

Teacher Michelle Grassly scours job listings every evening. She keeps a folder stacked with reference letters and a portfolio filled with family and consumer science lessons in case she lands an interview.

She has applied for jobs in 67 area districts since February, searching everywhere from Bannockburn to Minooka. She landed interviews in four schools; two jobs went to educators with more experience.

“I’m competing not only with new grads, but with other seasoned teachers that have lost their jobs due to cuts,” Grassly said. “It’s just a battlefield.”

Kane County’s Community Unit District 300 dismissed 363 teachers last month in an effort to reduce a deficit estimated at $5 million to $24 million, depending on the availability of state funding. Officials there said they hope to hire back half the teachers — maybe even all — if their union agrees to wage and benefit concessions this summer.

In the western suburbs, Wheaton Warrenville School District 200 dismissed 73 full-time and part-time teachers and does not plan to replace 25 to 30 retiring teachers in an effort to cut $1 million in expenses. Nearby Elmhurst School District 205 laid off 35 teachers from the elementary and high schoo l ranks in a budget-reducing effort and doesn’t expect to rehire many of them.

South suburban Mokena School District 159 dismissed seven teachers after cutting twice as many educators last year. More than a dozen teachers slid into new positions to cover the vacancies, Superintendent Karen Perry said. Voters this month rejected the district’s bid for a tax-rate increase that would have restored most classroom positions.

“We had teaches who moved from third grade to junior high,” Perry said. “We have a teacher teaching Spanish who hadn’t taught Spanish in 20 years.”

The revolving door of reductions and recalls has become a normal part of the budgeting cycle because of the mismatch between when districts must firm up staffing levels and when Springfield decides on a final budget. By law, every district except Chicago must notify teachers 60 days before the school year’s end whether their jobs might be eliminated.

Most educators typically keep their jobs, but the financial squeeze facing schools has driven down rehires.

Two years ago, about 6,139 teachers were laid off in the spring with half rehired before the next school year began. Even more teachers — 8,823 in all — were let go last spring, state records show, with 56 percent rehired.

Illinois’ teaching ranks shrunk by an estimated 2,102 jobs during the 2009-2010 school year, state records show. An additional 554 city teachers permanently lost their jobs, according to the Chicago Teachers Union.

Tracy Friello learned last month that she might lose her job in the only school where she’s ever taught.

The Woodland Middle School math teacher received her pink slip along with 39 other full-time teachers in the Gurnee-based school system. Some, though, may be rehired even as the district wrestles an estimated $4 million deficit.

“This is the school where I star ted my career and this is the school that I came back to after I had my kids. I just have to hope this works out,” Friello said. “But can I just hope or should I be looking? That’s the part that’s really hard.”

Many teachers who kept their jobs still face upheaval of a sort.

Kelly Tess learned this month that she’ll have a new teaching assignment come fall.

She will swap fourth grade for sixth grade, elementary school for middle school. But she keeps a foothold in West Northfield School District 31, where she’s worked for three years.

“I’m just going to look at it as an opportunity to learn something new and be grateful for the fact I’m not one of the teachers who find themselves unemployed right now,” Tess said.

Seven miles away, Wilmette School District 39 grappled with sweeping layoffs for the first time in years. The North Shore district alerted 82 teachers in March that they could lose their jobs or see their hours cut if a tax-rate increase did not gain voter support. But Wilmette residents approved the request and the district averted $6.4 million in additional cuts during the next two years.

To date, 49 of the 82 educators in the North Shore district have been rehired.

Many school administrators say they are cautious to hire back dozens of teachers until state officials approve a final budget. Gov. Pat Quinn called for a 4.2 percent increase in education funding. But Illinois House leaders last month urged tighter spending caps, including a 1.4 percent cut to the $6.95 billion budget for kindergarten through high schools.

What’s more, Illinois public schools have used about half — 55 percent — of the federal schools jobs bill that pumped $415 million into the state in an effort to stave off the worst of the layoffs.

On average, districts invest about 80 percent of their resources in salary and bene fits.

South suburban Lincoln-Way High School District 210 plans to cut 14 teaching positions through a mix of retirements and reductions. Superintendent Lawrence Wyllie said they hope to keep as many laid-off teachers as possible.

“We’re trying to save jobs, so we’ll split and give one person two classes and another three classes. They can continue coaching,” Wyllie said. “If they can hang in there, we want to keep them.”

For now, Grassly restricts her job search to Chicago-area high schools. But if she doesn’t land a job as a family and consumer science teacher — an elective often at risk in cash-strapped schools — she’s prepared to look in other states and even Europe.

Grassly lost her position at Hampshire High School last year when budget cuts battered the school. She split the current year with temporary teaching jobs at Fenton High School in Bensenville and Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville.

But she’s not willing to walk away from teaching despite the uncertainty.

“I had a school in my basement as a kid. I taught the neighborhood kids,” Grassly said. “I don’t want to give up.”