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Last updated 11:43 am CT September 02, 2010.
School Districts Forced To Lay Off Staff
"Everything is cutting into the flesh at this point," Harrisburg School Superintendent Dennis Smith said. "There is no program that we can cut and say that's fat."
Eldorado School District has already announced cuts; several others are expected to make the same announcement in the next couple weeks. District leaders say they are trying to avoid cuts that affects students, but they may not have any other option.
Anyone who drives by Eldorado High School knows how much the state owes the district. Right now, almost $365,984.99. Eldorado Superintendent Gary Siebert doesn't expect to see a dime of that money anytime soon.
"All we heard in October and November was, 'Wait until after the primary election on February 2nd,'" Siebert said. "Guess what we're hearing now? Wait until after the general election in November."
Siebert says he cannot wait. Thursday night, he and the school board dismissed 17 employees for the next school year. They include a bus driver, assistant principal, nine teachers, three teacher's aids, and three others.
"These people all have families to feed, mortgages to pay, car payments to make," Siebert said. "It's just not a lot of fun."
Siebert says he wants to make cuts in areas that harm students the least. However, the next step is to increase class size.
"This is money we were told we were going to get, and it isn't coming," Smith said.
Smith is in the same position as Siebert. The state owes Harrisburg School District roughly $700,000. Smith says state leaders got his attention a few months ago.
"When the state superintendent of education came out in the fall and said, "We have to prepare for the catastrophe that's coming,'" Smith said. "There's a word I hadn't heard any time in my tenure of being a school administrator."
Smith outlined programs to cut in a spreadsheet. He plans to announce March 10, 2010, that elementary art and high school agriculture will not be around next year, and neither will Pre-K.
"Most of the people who go, if they do get laid off, will be right at the bottom of the seniority list--first and second year people," Smith said.
Smith and Siebert say they will hire some of the staff back if the state balances the books. But both worry next year's state budget will have room for even less.
Illinois state law requires that districts issue layoff notices for the next school year before March 30, 2010. Several districts across southern Illinois are expected to make similar announcements at upcoming board meetings.
By: Jeff Stensland
jstensland@wsiltv.com
Now: 1283452011
