District 102 Cuts Would Affect ‘Most Vulnerable Children’: Parent

Parents and teachers shared concerns during an emotional meeting Thursday about the impact staff reductions in District 102’s tiered learning programs would have on students with special educational needs.

The District 102 School Board did not act on $1 million in proposed budget cuts but indicated they would approve the majority of the items at the next meeting.

Superintendent Warren Shillinburg recommended the 18 cuts as a means to partially make up for a projected $3 million shortfall in district revenues.

The district would not replace four retiring instructors in the district’s Tier 3 Math and Reading Intervention Program and one retiring special education teacher, Shillinburg said. Eliminating the positions would save $250,000 next year.

As a result of the cuts, students who now get special instruction would spend more time in the general classroom, which Shillinburg said is typical elsewhere.

Tier 2 students currently spend 30 minutes a day working with a math interventionist. Under the new scenario, they would be integrated into the general education classroom for math, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Lori Gehrke said.

“We feel like this is an area where it’s acceptable and very doable because our teachers have expertise with teaching our students at Tier 2,” she said. “It’s not that our intervention teachers have any certification beyond that in math.”

Tier 3 students would continue to spend 30 minutes per day receiving direct instruction from a resource teacher.

Rather than spending an hour a day in a small group, direct instruction program for reading, Tier 3 students would receive instruction in three daily blocks: 30 minutes for the My Sidewalks program, 30 minutes with an online learning program and 30 minutes of small group support on a rotating schedule with core classes.

“This provides an opportunity for all students to have more access to the richness of our core program,” Shillinburg said.

Several parents and teachers who spoke, however, were not convinced that the changes would benefit the children.

Kathleen Valenta, president of the teachers union, said the she feels enough concessions have already been made.

"We renegotiated our contract. We took a decrease in our pocketbook," she said. "We did that to show this community how important their children are to us—to keep classrooms small, to keep tiered instruction in the schools, to provide the best education possible for students. ... We made that sacrifice and it doesn't seem to have been even noticed."

A parent of students at Cossitt and Park said that she would have to make up for the loss of personalized instruction with outside programming.

“The money that the district is going to be saving, that’s money that’s coming out of my pocket on the other end,” she said. She also said she feared the curriculum changes would impact property values in La Grange.

Shillinburg said that if the changes prove ineffective, the district would seek another solution.

But another parent said that she did not want to take that chance.

“These are our most vulnerable children, and they do not have time to spare to be an experiment,” she said. “They deserve better than this.”

The recommended cuts also include three full-time general education teachers, according to board documents. Shillinburg said that the board voted in March to approve those reductions. The teachers could be rehired, however, if the district’s financial situation changes.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 25 at Park Junior High.

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