Email
Print
Feed
District 200 school board trims more positions
Woodstock School District 200’s second phase of staff reductions is now complete, ending with the elimination of 19 educational support positions for the 2012-2013 school year.
The board of education approved the honorable dismissal of 13 employees at its April 24 meeting.
D-200 Associate Superintendent for Human Resources and Operations Mark Heckmon explained that the reason why only 13 employees were dismissed when 19 jobs were cut was because 2.5 of the positions were vacated through natural attrition, while employees in the other 3.5 jobs had been hired on a short- term basis.
The positions cut included two secretaries, classroom associates, bus associates and hallway monitors from across the district. “The positions are from dual language, bilingual, elementary through high school,” Heckmon said.
The reductions in force (known as RIFs) are part of an overall effort to trim spending by $2.67 million, due to declining revenue and increasing costs. At the March 20 school board meeting, the district cut 16 teaching positions.
At the time, about 23 non-certified positions were projected for cuts, but budget fine-tuning brought that number down to 19. In addition, the district has frozen administrative salaries and cut building and administrative budgets, for a total savings of about $1.67 million.
The board will use $1 million in fund reserves to meet the projected shortfall.
Heckmon said some of the dismissed employees could be recalled once the district knows what to expect in terms of state revenue. “First our surplus staff will be filtered into anticipated positions, then, once they’re placed, we’ll start bringing back the people who were RIFed,” he said.
