Editor’s note: The following Q&A message from Superintendent Scott McAlister was included in the District 153 e-newsletter posted Thursday, April 10.
An update for our community on staffing for the 2025-2026 school year
On Monday, April 7, the Board of Education approved recommendations from the superintendent regarding staffing levels for next year. We wanted to clarify our reasons for these decisions and their impact on next year.
Scott McAlister, superintendent
Q: How many positions were cut for the 2025-2026 school year?
A: The board approved a Reduction-in-Force (RIF) of two certified staff members, one of whom is a full-time music teacher and one of whom is a part-time orchestra teacher. There are also two certified staff members who are retiring this year whose positions will not be replaced by certified staff members (P.E. position at James Hart and a first-grade teacher at Willow).
The board also approved the non-renewal of all probationary classroom assistants, totaling eighteen people.
Q: How will this impact class sizes and the programs that are offered?
A: The administration worked very hard to minimize the impact to class sizes and programming. Since COVID, our district enrollment is about 100 students less, but our staffing levels grew to address higher student needs. In addition, the last two kindergarten classes have been some of the smallest we have seen in two decades. This is how we can absorb the first-grade retirement without impacting class sizes dramatically. The P.E. position will be filled with a non-certified assistant to help manage students.
Our current labor agreement requires us to RIF all part-time employees first, but the board intends to post the part-time orchestra position (4th and 5th grade) and hire the most qualified applicant. There will no changes in our band, choir and orchestra programs.
The music classes will be taught during the day by existing music staff. All music classes in all three buildings will remain the same as this year.
The board intends to re-hire a small number of the probationary assistants who are being non-renewed. This will be determined in the coming weeks and based on special education requirements.
Q: I heard that the district was adding two administrators to replace one who was retiring. Is this true?
A: No. The curriculum office at the district currently has four people who work there — two administrators and two union members. One administrator is retiring, and we are moving one of the two union members into that role and not replacing that position.
As a result, next year there will only be three people currently completing the work that four are doing this year.
It is worth noting that three years ago the same office had three administrators (five people total). The change described above results in a 40% reduction in staffing over a four-year period.
Q: My taxes went up dramatically. Does this not provide the district with sufficient revenue?
A: A referendum was passed in 2022 with over 71% of the community voting in favor. This has provided much-needed revenue, with $5 million extra revenue being received versus if the referendum had not passed. Had we not received this extra revenue, the cuts required to balance our budget would have been very deep, catastrophically impacting our ability to provide the services we do.
It is worth noting that the biggest increase in local taxes came from the triennial reassessment of property in South Cook County. This reassessment resulted in a much larger burden of taxes being placed on households rather than businesses.
So while your taxes did go up in part due to the referendum, the biggest impact came from the actions of the Cook County Assessor. We did not receive the majority of the increase you paid on your tax bill.
Q: I have heard you say that the district’s costs have risen? What costs are higher? What has changed?
A: There are several things:
The district just signed a new contract with the union that keeps us in the top half of all local districts for salaries and benefits. Our staff is the most important asset we have, and we must pay competitively if we hope to keep high-quality staff and attract new people to the district.
There is a teacher shortage. We are paying people 10-15% more today to replace someone than we would have paid ten years ago.The cost of our health insurance renewal is projected to be nearly 20% for next year, more than double what was originally expected.
Staffing is based on enrollment but also student needs, and one area that is very difficult to predict is special education. We are required by law to provide services based on an individual’s IEP, and we are unable to predict who may move into our district and who require services or existing students who may qualify for services in the future. We have over 300 students with IEPs, and providing these services is very labor-intensive and thus expensive.
The cost of transportation has risen dramatically as a result of the shortage of bus drivers.
Much-needed new roofs at Churchill (summer of 2024) and Willow (summer of 2025) will total about $4 million. At some point deferred maintenance projects must be done; they cannot be delayed forever. We are at that point with our roofs.
Our facilities are aging. All three buildings were built in the 1950s and 1960s, and the most recent major addition was at James Hart in 2002. We will be receiving our 10-year Life-Safety report from our architects in the next few months, and it will detail the projects we must undertake over the next several years to maintain safe and productive schools. We know this will cost millions of dollars to address the items we expect in the report.
Q: If we do not reduce staffing levels what will happen?
A: If we proceed with our current revenue and cost projections, we will have a deficit of $1.3 million for the 2025-2026 school year. If we continue doing nothing for a second year, we will have a deficit of $2.3 million for the 2026-2027 school year.