Nearly 40 Naperville District 203 educators are expected to receive notices of honorable dismissal this coming week as the school board discusses how to balance a budget that has a $12.4 million deficit.
The board is scheduled to hold a public hearing and vote on a reduction in force at its meeting Monday.
“The administration and union leadership worked diligently to minimize the impact on as many people as possible,” Superintendent Dan Bridges said in a statement. “Unfortunately, 38 of our educators will receive notice of honorable dismissal this week as a step in this process. We know these decisions affect people whose contributions matter deeply to this community, and we recognize how hard this moment is for many of our staff and families.”
Ross Berkley, president of the Naperville Unit Education Association, said the union believes there could have been a way to have brought the number of jobs lost down further, perhaps even to zero, but the school board asked administrators to close the entire $12.4 million budget gap.
“The association and administration have worked extremely collaboratively and creatively to reduce the impact on people’s jobs and people’s lives because we know that is going to impact our students and our families,” Berkley said.
“The board has given this directive to the administration,” he said. “The administration and the association have been highly collaborative in trying to save as many jobs as we can. But we are absolutely at the mercy of the board of education’s directive.”
Earlier this month, the district proposed cutting the equivalent of 90 full-time certified educator positions and seven administrative positions, with the hope of achieving that first through attrition and not filling positions when employees leave the district or retire.
As part of the plan, the district offered a one-time retirement incentive so that educators wanting to retire at the end of the school year would still receive full retirement benefits even if they didn’t meet prior notifications.
In the last two weeks, the union and administration were able to reevaluate their numbers and agreed to cut 81 certified educator positions and seven administration positions.
After taking into consideration attrition and employees opting for the retirement incentive, the number of people to be reduced is 38.
More Top Picks Rhizome
The 81 positions cut includes the full-time equivalent of 20 positions at the elementary level, including 17 teachers, one reading specialist and two math specialists, and 15.8 positions at the middle school level, including 12.8 classroom positions and three learning support coaches, said Lisa Xagas, assistant superintendent for strategy and engagement.
At the high school level, there would be the full-time equivalent of 43.2 positions reduced, which is 31.6 classroom teachers, Xagas said. The other 11.6 positions include school counselors, student advocacy specialists, student success interventionists, learning support coaches and learning commons teachers.
According to the district, high school enrollment has dropped by about 1,000 students over the last 12 years.
At the district level, two certified educator positions — an alternative learning opportunities coordinator and a district project manager — will be removed, Xagas said.
The district has a target class size of 20 to 30 students in its core academic classrooms, she said. Reducing the positions would aim to have class sizes in about the middle of the district’s goals, she said.
In addition to the 81 certified educator positions, there are also seven administrative positions that will be eliminated, including an assistant superintendent, a director of professional learning, two directors of outreach and student belonging, one director of student services, one elementary school assistant principal and another to be determined. Attrition will be applied first, Xagas said.
“The board has directed the administration to bring forth a balanced budget that involves closing that $12.4 million structural deficit,” she said. “We believe we have taken every effort to maximize our reduction outside of the classroom first.”
In addition to streamlining staff, about $4 million is expected to be saved by reducing discretionary spending, cutting nonessential travel and consolidating software platforms, while raising some fees, such as driver’s education, to better align with the actual cost of providing the courses or programs.
Union representatives hope that some of the teachers lost due to the reduction in force may return through the recall process.
“We are hoping to be able to collaboratively work with the administration to be able to recall as many people as possible based on positions opening up, whether it be through more retirement incentives or whatever creative methods we can come up with,” union Vice President Kyle Adams said.
If the board moves forward with the reduction in force plan Monday, there would be a ripple effect of losing those individuals, Berkley said.
“We will have a shuffling or reassignment of people that are in their current positions, more so than usual,” he said. “This does happen every year that people change levels or positions because of their certification. That will be exacerbated this year by the RIF process. That will be stage two of the fallout of the reduction in force.”
District administration is planning to bring a balanced 2026-27 budget to the board in the spring.
In February, the administration presented its five-year financial forecast that showed years of deficits, including a $14.8 million deficit in fiscal year 2027-28 and an $18.5 million deficit by fiscal year 2028-29.
Berkley said the district’s financial problems didn’t happen overnight and closing the gap in one year is a “pretty tall order.” Attrition could have started earlier and extended into the future, he said.
“We also believe that cutting the entire budget gap in one year is not the only way the budget gap could have been addressed, and I think it would have had less impact on teachers,” he said.
Over all grade levels, enrollment has decreased by about 875 students in the last 12 years while staff levels rose by 185 members. The district maintained the staffing levels to help students bounce back from pandemic learning loss and also support staff during the pandemic, Xagas said.
The district is righting the ship now to prevent further problems in the future, she said.
“We care greatly for every educator in our system,” Xagas said. “Certainly we understand that there is significant impact when there has to be a reduction in force. And that we don’t take lightly, but we also know that we have to fix the structural deficit for the long haul in order to maintain the fiscal health of the district for next year and for the future. Otherwise the impact to students would be significant.”
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.