CHATHAM – The Ball-Chatham School District will continue its pre-kindergarten program in some form, though state funding will dictate how many students it can accommodate.
In the meantime, however, school board members voted Monday to lay off all the pre-kingergarten staff, except for two teachers, for the time being.
The board also agreed to take a more “conservative approach” to budget cuts School Superintendent Bob Gillum recommended last month to help fill a projected $2.2 million loss in state funding.
Steps will include modifying pre-K based on funding, increasing fees for textbooks, athletic participation and driver’s education, limiting field trips, setting up vehicle fleet plans and reducing transportation spending.
“We don’t know what the state will come through with (in terms of funding) and we cannot make definite plans,” Trustee Linda Carter said, but “we can make a commitment we will have at least some form of pre-K along with our early childhood program,”
Pre-K positions that have been tentatively eliminated are: one teacher, the parent coordinator and eight aide positions. They will be rehired if funding is secured.
One probationary teaching position in the district also was dropped for budgetary reasons.
Gillum read a prepared statement at the start of Monday’s meeting, putting the responsibility for the cutbacks on the state of Illinois.
“As of today, mid March, 2010, we have not received a single dollar of our nearly $300,000 in costs paid to this year’s teachers, support staff and materials” for pre-kindergarten, he said.
Amanda Reavy can be reached at 788-1525.
Teacher transfer OKed over objections
Roughly 100 Glenwood High School students and parents attended Monday’s meeting to object to the transfer of GHS student assistance program coordinator Betty Cress to Glenwood Middle School as a physical education teacher.
More than 20 people addressed the board, calling Cress a “second mother” to the high school students and describing her instrumental role in alcohol and drug abuse prevention programs at the school.
The board approved the transfer anyway.
School board president Mark Bartolozzi said it was a “very difficult decision,” but the transfer was an administrative recommendation that the board felt must be supported. School Superintendent Bob Gillum said he couldn’t comment.
Read the original article from The State Journal-Register.
