‘Hard Decisions’: District 113 loses 10-plus full-time equivalents in recommended staffing plan

Township High School District 113 board of education members will later this month consider a recommendation from administrators to reduce staffing levels across the district for next school year. 

District administrators announced their staffing recommendations for the 2025-26 school year on March 4 during a Committee of the Whole meeting of the board of education. The proposal recommends a reduction of just over 10 full-time-equivalent positions throughout the district. 

The presented proposal includes all licensed and non-licensed staffing and is the minimum level the district needs for 25-26 year, Chief Communications Officer Karen Warner told The Record. The recommendation is based “on the knowledge we have right now,” Warner added. 

Although the proposal recommends a reduction of just over four full-time equivalent licensed staffers at Highland Park High School, it earmarks a slight uptick at Deerfield High School. Officials are recommending 169.025 licensed staff at Deerfield, an increase from the 168.30 staffers for the current school year. 

Across the district, including administrative positions, officials are proposing a decrease of 2.32 full-time equivalent licensed staff members. Additionally, non-licensed staffing levels may drop by three across the district. The remaining 5.5 full-time equivalents comes from special-education paraprofessional roles that became vacant this school year and would not be filled moving forward.

Superintendent Dr. Chala Holland prefaced the March 4 discussion by noting that preparing a staffing recommendation “is never easy for any school district,” later adding that the process this year has “included many leaders at the department, building and district level.” 

The process of developing a staffing recommendation begins when district students select their courses in December-January. Officials then use the course selections to determine the numbers of sections offered for the following school year. 

Course selections are a key driver of the district’s staffing recommendation, particularly for licensed staff members, Warner said, noting there are additional factors that officials take into consideration. 

Those sections, officials said, will align with the provisions of the 2023-’26 collective bargaining agreement. Warner told The Record that agreement is the first in D113 between newly unionized licensed staff — the District 113 Education Association — and the board of education. 

The 2023-’24 school year was already underway when the existing deal was approved, meaning staffing levels for that school year were already established, Warner said. 

Last year, according to Warner, officials experienced “some learning curves and interpretation questions” in the first full year operating under the new CBA. Those challenges were resolved through memorandums of understanding, she said. 

Administrators said they also reviewed recent trends in the district to work toward the recommendation.

“We also took time to review historical data of shifts that have more recently occurred in courses and used insights from our buildings regarding the courses that are likely to experience an increase due to students moving into our district between now and the start of our school year,” Holland said. 

According to Warner, all school districts must operate under state law that requires districts to complete the reduction in force process by April 15. After that date, all staffing changes will have to be additions rather than subtractions because of the requirements and deadlines, Holland said. 

Near the conclusion of her remarks at the meeting, Holland said the coming years ahead for District 113 will require some “hard decisions.”

“We will have to continue to make hard decisions regarding our instructional and support priorities as a district,” she said. “Everything can no longer be a priority, so within the next two to three years, we will continue to take hard looks at all of our staffing and FTE to align our priorities and structures with our vision for learning.”

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