Chicago Public Schools Slashes 1,000 Positions

More cost-cutting measures hit Chicago Public Schools on Friday — This time, in the form of roughly 1,000 layoffs.

About half of those eliminated positions were held by teachers, according to the Chicago Teachers Union. The remaining 500 or so comprise education support personnel.

An exact breakdown includes 192 elementary school teachers, 302 high school teachers, 352 high school support personnel and 140 elementary school support personnel, according to The Chicago Tribune. A DNAinfo report said the nixed positions reflect about 3 percent of the entire teaching staff and that around half of the layoffs — 256, to be exact — were of tenured teachers.

CPS reps said the terminated teachers will be eligible to apply for any of the 1,000 teaching vacancies currently in the district.

"The majority of affected personnel are expected to be hired into open positions at other schools ... " reported the Chicago Tribune, citing CPS. "In past years, about 60 percent of teachers who have been laid off have been rehired in full-time positions in the district."

A spokeswoman said CPS will not announce the impacts to individual schools until later Friday, and that about 280 of the more than 500 district-run facilities will not be impacted during the forthcoming academic year.

The Chicago Teachers Union issued a statement to the contrary, labeling the move as a "gutting of experienced educators and other school employees (that) only weakens schools and puts children at a disadvantage."

"This latest round of layoffs comes when Mayor Rahm Emanuel is seeking more tax hikes from Chicago’s working families while he continues to ignore demands that he go after wealthy developers and others who enrich themselves at the public’s expense," the statement says. "If the city and Chicago Board of Education exhibited leadership by implementing progressive revenue strategies, such as declaring a TIF surplus and reinstating a corporate head tax, these layoffs could have been avoided.“

The district contends that it has $140 million fewer dollars to spend this year. The total spending budget is $2.8 million.

"While CPS has said budget changes are driven by enrollment, about 70 schools are set to receive less money compared with what they were left with in the middle of last year despite increased or flat enrollment," reported Tribune.

Union representatives encouraged those affected to update their profile in the organization's database. They also published a blog post reminding teachers of their rights.

Check back soon for more on this developing story.