More Teachers Headed for District 308 Next Year

After almost two hours of discussion, sections of the Oswego District 308 staffing plan for the 2013-14 school year have been approved.

The plan, presented two weeks ago by executive director for administrative services John Sparlin asked for a total of 37.6 full-time equivalent positions with a cost of $1.8 million.

On Monday night the board had on their agenda the positions of general education teachers, special education teachers, ESL/ELL teachers, AT teachers, certified nurses, assistant principals and speech pathologist for a total of 19.1 FTE at a cost of $1,049,120.

The board spent time discussing the amount of students per classroom, a point that brought some community members to comment during the meeting's public comment portion. 

At the previous meeting, Superintendent Matthew Wendt said the school district did not have any policies in place regarding class sizes and had suggested the option of moving students to schools where there were classrooms that had available space to even out the amount of students per classroom.

“I understand every argument against it,” he said at Monday’s board meeting.

He also said while the district hears about the number of students coming in, they don’t hear about the students moving out.

“That 31 could change,” said Wendt regarding the 31 first-graders currently in one classroom at Hunt Club Elementary. “In August we could be looking at different numbers.”

Board member Greg O’Neil said his family lives abut a mile from Prairie Point, which has open room for students, but his neighborhood’s children are bused to Hunt Club. “There’s no doubt in my mind the families in my neighborhood would take you up on that offer,” he said of the idea of moving students to different schools.

“I don’t know if it’s wise for the board to create that policy over the summer,” said board member Brent Lightfoot.

Lightfoot made a motion to modify the proposal into two sections: Section A was the hiring of 3.6 FTE general education teachers, 3.0 FTE ELL/ESL teachers, 4.0 FTE special education teachers and 2.0 FTE certified teachers. Section B was the hiring of 4.5 FTE academically talented teachers, .6 FTE speech pathologists and 1.4 FTE elementary assistant principals.

“I think we should challenge ourselves to save money in other places,” said Board President Bill Walsh before the vote, as the cost of the positions and what the district could afford was brought up numerous times.

“If we’re serious about educating kids, then let’s get rid of all the sports," put out Walsh. "We can probably come up with a million dollars. I don’t want to break anybody’s hearts… I want to put education first.”

Section A was unanimously approved by the board, with several of those positions required by state law. Section B was voted down in a 5-2 vote, with board president Bill Walsh and vice president Alison Swanson casting the lone votes in favor of hiring.

“I’m not saying no to these positions,” Lightfoot said of Section B. “I’m saying not right now.”

Positions that did not make it to the Monday night meeting for consideration included webmaster, crisis coordinator, custodians, and maintenance/ground staff. A full copy of the staffing plan can be seen here.