Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan plans to slash 450 jobs ranging from social workers to parent advocates in his tentative $4.8 billion budget to be unveiled Monday.
The cuts, expected to save $24 million in 2003-04, will mean layoffs for hundreds of workers because only about 50 of the positions are vacant jobs that will be left unfilled.
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Still, the overall number of employees in the nation’s third-largest school district is expected to remain nearly constant, officials said. Although the Duncan team is cutting jobs in some departments, it continues to add in others, including hiring teachers.
“It looks like [the size of the workforce] will be fairly flat,” said John Maiorca, director of the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Management and Budget.