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| District 205 Makes Nearly 80 Cuts |
The Galesburg School Board has approved what a top district official calls the largest Reduction in Force in nearly three-decades.
The District-205 Board Monday night approved an annual Reduction in Force list that included nearly 80 individuals -- 20 full- and part-time teachers, nearly 60 paraprofessionals or aides, both full- and part-time, and one administrator.
Superintendent Doctor Gene Denisar tells WGIL what he now understands to be a proposed 14-percent cut in state education spending is to blame.
"It leaves an innumerable number of students behind," Denisar said. "Kind of paraphrasing from 'No Child Left Behind.' We're leaving a lot of them behind tonight."
The annual Reduction in Force list usually comprises a lot of grant-funded positions, the people employed in which are often re-hired later, but Denisar tells WGIL that's not certain this time.
"We're waiting to see what the Governor does," Denisar said. "We know last year, the state withdrew a lot of funding after they assured us that these funds would be available. And so it's really a wait and see."
The lone district administrator cut will be Steele Elementary School principal Rochelle Streeter. Denisar says assuming the state cuts pre-kindergarten funding as well, it's likely that Bright Futures Program director Maury Lyon will oversee what's left of that program, and have to become a principal at an elementary building.
On a slightly related note, several other district principals or assistant principals Monday night either saw their contracts extended or were granted tenure.
(A look at both sides of the marquis sign outside Lincoln Education Center in Galesburg Monday night. WGIL News Story and Photos by Will Stevenson.) |
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| 03 09 10 by Newsroom |
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