Budget issues could figure prominently into tonight’s Springfield School Board meeting.
The board is expected to approve the release of 85 employees who are under one-year contracts with the district: certified (teaching) staff members, 15 permanent substitute teachers and 54 non-certified employees.
Certified employees include full- and part-time classroom and fine arts teachers, post-secondary coaches, special education teachers and reading specialists. Non-certified employees include parent educators and special education attendants.
The board also will discuss whether to approve plans to open the Capital College Preparatory Academy next fall. The school, a partnership between the district and the Springfield Urban League, would first enroll only sixth-graders but gradually grow to include students through 12th grade. It also would place girls and boys in separate classes and require them to wear dress clothes. The program would be housed at Feitshans Academy, 1101 S. 15th St., and the University of Illinois Springfield.
Some board members said their approval of the academy would be based on the cost of the program.
“It sounds like a neat program. And sounds like it would benefit a certain group of kids,” said board member Susan White. “My problem is that I need to be convinced there truly is not an added cost, or substantial cost, involved. And I’m not there yet. In light of the current budget-cut situation, I don’t want to be irresponsible.”
Many of the released employees either were hired late last year using grant money that might not be renewed or to fill in temporarily for someone on leave, said district personnel director Alexander Ikejiaku. They have nothing to do with the district’s recently proposed $5.3 million in budget cuts, he said.
“Basically, this category describes all hiring that is either temporary, out-of-the-ordinary or cautionary from a funding perspective,” Ikejiaku said in an email.
In past years, many, but not all, released employees have been rehired the following school year. But cuts in state funding and district belt-tightening make this uncertain for next school year.
“The district’s experience over many years is that they have been hired back and then some. Keep in mind, though, that not everyone on that list sits around waiting to be hired back,” Ikejiaku said. “Quite a few of them take the initiative to move on to other endeavors … once they know they have a one-year-only contract.
“What usually happens is that the district would go through the motion of calling everyone on the contract-fulfilled list as vacancies occur, and cross them out as they are either placed or decline the offer,” he said. “After that, if there are still vacancies, we go on to hire brand new teachers.”
Pete Sherman can be reached at 788-1539.
Want to go?
What: Springfield School Board meeting
Where: 1900 W. Monroe St.
When: 6 p.m.
To read the agenda: http://esbpublic.springfield.k12.il.us/
Read the original article from The State Journal-Register.
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