North Shore District 112 Plans To Lay Off 65 Staff Members

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — More than 60 employees of North Shore School District 112 could receive layoff notices later this month, as the closure of a pair of schools means the district can reduce salary costs by several million dollars. In the three months since the shuttering of Lincoln Elementary and Elm Place Middle School was announced, administrators have been developing a new staffing plan, Deputy Superintendent Monica Schroeder told the board Tuesday.

"This is a very difficult discussion and I want to honor the fact that we're talking about people and not just numbers as well," Schroeder said.

The district currently employs 581 full-time equivalent staff, not including custodial and other contractual services, she said. It plans to reduce that number by 72, with 41 of them coming from the pre-K through grade 6 levels and the rest from middle schools.

But those numbers will not exactly match up to total numbers of staff who will receive layoff notices, Schroeder said. Part-time employees are calculated as a portion of the unit. Plus, some staffers will choose to retire or adjust their hours.

After taking into account staffing changes, Schroeder predicted that administrators would recommend the "honorable discharge" of 40 certified teachers and 25 non-certified employees to the board next month.

The staffing plan laid out in a Schroeder's March 6 memo to the board factors in the closure of the two schools, along with the consolidation of special education programs, implementing full-day kindergarten and other changes in resource allocation.

The average total compensation for teachers at middle and elementary teachers is about $83,000, Schroeder said. She said the district expected to save $3.8 to $4 million based on calculations of average salary and benefits.

"You also have to factor in that for the last three years we've been declining in enrollment, and we've made staffing adjustments along the way," saving another million dollars, Schroeder said.

Schroeder said that the layoffs were taking place according to a change in Illinois law, known as SB7.

Passed in 2011, the bill changed the procedures for laying off teachers in Illinois to take into account performance evaluations.

Previously, non-tenured teachers were laid off prior to teachers with tenure, who were then laid off by seniority, according to an Illinois Federation of Teachers summary of the law.

Board members thanked Schroeder and the other administrators who assembled the new staffing plan.

"It's an incredibly complex law and applying it in a district the size of ours is quite an undertaking," Daniel Jenks. "I want to applaud you for trying to run the district in the most efficient manner possible and I also want to especially applaud you for how you're caring for employees who unfortunately will be losing employment here."

Schroeder said the district would provide help to staffers who will find themselves looking for new work, including with an event in April with representatives from Des Plaines District 62, Grayslake District 46 and River Trails District 26.

If parents or community members are interested in sharing their support for staffers who may be facing layoff notices, Schroeder suggested writing letters of recommendation, which she said she always appreciated receiving while considering applicants.

Gift baskets, she said, are also always welcome.

Layoff notices will be sent out March 22, and the board will be asked to take action on the staff reductions on April 10.

Board President Eric Ephraim said realizing the combination of savings on salaries while expanding services was a "real milestone" and thanked Schroeder for helping the district efficiently use resources while being kind to its employees.

"I think the system that you've set up here is so humane, and I think what it says about our district and our community is important too," he said. "We understand that there are people behind each one of those numbers."

» Watch video from the March 6 North Shore School District 112 board meeting