Pink Slips Begin Flying At Chicago Public Schools
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 14, 2013 9:25PM
Friday is usually the ideal time for government entities to bury bad news and for news outlets to go digging for gold. Here’s a nugget: Chicago Public Schools laid off 850 employees Friday. All of them work at schools that are on the district’s list of closures at the end of the school year or scheduled for turnaround next school year. the news also comes out at Mayor Rahm Emanuel leaves the city for a week.
Here are the breakdowns in the firings, per the Sun-Times.
“At the 48 closing schools, 420 teachers of 1,005 total lost their jobs, plus 110 paraprofessionals and 133 bus aides and part-timers. At the five schools headed for “turnaround,” where the children remain in the building but all the adults are replaced, 192 staffers were laid off: 125 teachers, 20 paraprofessionals, 20 bus aides and part-timers and 27 clerks, custodians and security staffers.”
The teachers who lost their jobs either lacked tenure or the high performance ratings necessary to follow their students to receiving schools in the system. All the employees may reapply for other jobs within the system, and 60 percent of teachers end up being rehired.
Layoffs were on the mind of the Chicago Teachers Union earlier this week when CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett unveiled a five-year action plan for the school system aimed at improving education across all grades. CTU fears the evaluation pillar of the plan could result in as many as 6,000 teachers losing their jobs. While the teachers union fears the worst, additional cuts are already underway at CPS. More than $21 million in cuts are being made at the central office, administrative positions and operations programs as CPS works to close a $1 billion budget deficit. CPS previously announced $31 million in other cuts. Under school based budgeting, principals are responsible for their own staffing plans and may lay off staff at their schools as needed to meet their budgets.