Schools
Channahon District 17 Eliminates Six Positions, But One Will Return
Board members will be asked rehire the fourth year teacher at the next board meeting, and will be asked to grant her tenure.
Unlike many of the surrounding school districts, Channahon District 17 does not have to make most of its staffing decisions for the 2011-2012 school year based on a desire to reduce the budget. Instead, it is the declining enrollment in the district that is causing the reductions.
In 2009, the district has 1,682 children enrolled. By 2011, the number had dropped to 1,531. Numbers for 2011-2012 have not been finalized yet, but in some areas, even the preliminary numbers speak volumes.
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The district will lose two bus drivers for the 2011-2012 school year. The first was the driver for the Little Learners program and that position was grant-funded. The second, though was because of the districts ability to reorganize bussing for the coming school year, which essentially eliminated a driver. That reorganization, though, is not one-for-one and is not complete.
“It’s not like a single matchup,” Mike Schroeder, business manager and transportation director for the district said.
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He said the district consulted the bus drivers to come up with a new system.
“They looked at the entire district and they moved a lot of routes,” he said.
Those new routes have not been finalized.
In addition to drivers, board members voted to eliminate one one-on-one aide, because her position became a Southern Will County Cooperative for Special Education position, the least senior teacher’s aide, a sixth-grade teacher and an early childhood teacher. The early childhood position, however, will be back before the board again next meeting.
“I’m going to be coming back to you next meeting,” Superintendent Karin Evans said. “I will ask you to re-employ her and I will ask you to give her tenure.”
That teacher was in her fourth year at the district and her fifth year would have given her tenure. Evans reassured the board that eliminating her position and then rehiring her would not negatively impact her tenure.
In other news, because of the election, board members decided to move the April meeting to April 27.
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