Decreasing enrollment is prompting Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills District 181 to considering reducing its teaching staff for the 2012/2013 school year.
Although officials are not yet sure what enrollment will be for next school year, it has been on a downward trend. Overall enrollment was 4,033 in 2010/2011 and 3,975 in 2011/2012. It was 4,052 in the 2005/2006 school year.
Superintendent Renee Schuster said decreasing enrollment is being seen mostly at the elementary school level.
In a report to the board at a recent committee of the whole meeting, associate superintendent Mary Ticknor said current plans are to recommend an overall reduction of staff by about 10 full-time equivalents (FTE) next year, although the administration won’t know its actual needs until the school year is closer.
Due to expected enrollment decreases, the district currently may need three fewer elementary classroom teachers, she said. Several staff members plan to retire at the end of the current school year, so some reductions would be accommodated through attrition.
Administration also currently plans to recommend reducing elementary art, music, and physical education staff by .76 full-time equivalents.
Staffing at Hinsdale Middle School is projected to be flat from this year to next, while one additional teacher will likely be needed at Clarendon Hills Middle School. The district plans to add one the equivalent of one full-time administrative position at the middle-school level to assist in implementing new state-mandated performance evaluation requirements for teachers at both schools.
One director-level position in the district’s curriculum department will be added along with 4.2 additional elementary and district-wide specialists, including one Spanish teacher and two more performance-evaluation staff members at the elementary level.
It is estimated that the district could decrease the staffing budget by as much as $184,000 in the 2012/2013 school year and add as much as $717,000 depending on the number of contingency positions administration needs to use when next school year arrives, Ticknor said.
“This will change,” Ticknor said of the staffing plan. “When master schedules are done and enrollment fluctuates, this is going to change.”
