Fewer Community Consolidated School District 21 teachers lightens budget

With fewer teachers on the payroll now, the newly approved budget for Community Consolidated School District 21 has shrunk by about $3 million.

District board members decided last year not to replace retirees and educators who left for jobs elsewhere. Attrition cut the state-certified instruction staff from the equivalent of 555 full-time positions in 2015-16 to 538.9 full-time-equivalents this year, said Mary Werling, assistant superintendent for finance.

In the spending plan board members approved Sept. 15, District 21 is projected to spend $108 million during the 2016-17 school year. The district last budget year ended at a balance, taking in $111 million of revenue and spending $111 million.

During the meeting, board president Bill Harrison said a variety of cost cuts had kept District 21 from overspending.

“Our budget would be well over $5 million in the red,” he said.

The district saw cost savings after switching to a self-insurance plan, according to the board. Officials also changed last summer to a cheaper food provider.

During the Sept. 15 meeting, information technology leaders Mike Frantini and Adam Denenberg detailed how they doubled the district’s bandwidth while saving $475,000 annually.

But the majority of savings has come because of fewer salaries, Werling said.

“Education is a labor-intensive business,” she said.

But despite having fewer teachers, classroom sizes are within the targets the board set for its schools, Werling said.

For kindergarten through second grade, the district strives to have one instructor overseeing 25 students. Teachers in third through fifth grade should see no more than 26 faces.

Middle school teachers should have no more than 27 kids in their rooms, according to the district.

Based in Wheeling, the K-8 district serves nearly 7,000 students who live in Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Mount Prospect, Northbrook, Prospect Heights, unincorporated Cook County and Wheeling, according to the District 21 website.

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