After Vigorous Debate, District 219 Finalizes Staff Numbers

The Niles Township High School District 219 board has set final staffing levels for the 2011-12 school year at the equivalent of 388 full-time certified teachers–one less than this year.

Next year’s staffing follows the plan the district set out in January, those steps include:

• Reducing staff in the areas of physical welfare by including health classes in sophomore physical education.
• Trimming library services.
• Raising fine arts class sizes.
• Eliminating and reducing some courses in applied sciences and technology.
• Changing some special education classes from two semesters to one.
• Changing some special education co-teachers to aides.
• Assigning department directors some teaching duties.

Overall, the reductions add up to the equivalent of 11 full-time staff members. However, the district, comprising  Niles Central, Niles North and Niles West high schools, added the equivalent of 10 new staff members.

Faculty is being added in math, which has a new extension course to ensure students can enroll in at least Algebra I; English, in which sophomore class sizes were reduced; and science, in which the state mandated classes for English language learners.

Rising enrollment in certain areas led to increases in staffing for English language learners, social studies and foreign languages. Also, the equivalent of one full-time staff member will go to a new teacher evaluation and mentoring program.

“Had we not gone through what we went through [over] the last six months, we would not have been able to make these additions,” said School Board President Robert Silverman.

The restructuring became a point of public controversy when the that their jobs would be eliminated because they had the least seniority in the affected departments.

Last month, the school board and the Niles Township Federation of Teachers agreed to a plan that would preserve the jobs of those teachers and eliminate nontenured teachers instead.

Superintendent Nanciann Gatta said that the restructuring done over the past three years has been accomplished without eliminating any programs.

“We have cut variety within the programs, because variety adds cost and complexity,” she said.

Silverman said that the district might have to consider limiting the number of classes students take in coming years, since some class enrollments are increasing the need for staff, even though the total number of students at the high schools has not grown.

“Many students are graduating with many more than the number of courses we require and more than the number of courses required by their colleges,” he said. “We have not increased our enrollment; we have increased enrollment in these courses.”