Chicago Principals Get Creative To Keep Cuts From Classroom
(CBS) -- When CPS announced last week it wanted principals to cut $120 million out of their budgets mid-year, there was concern teachers would lose their jobs.
In the end, only 17 teachers and 45 other staffers got pink slips.
CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports principals used some creative slicing to save classroom teachers.
There were 42 teachers at Sutherland Elementary School when administrators were forced to cut $100,000 from the mid-year budget.
Today, there are still 42. Principal Eric Steinmiller saved every one of them.
"If you provide for your teachers you provide for your students," he says.
That seems to have been the philosophy across the district. Out of 25,000 teachers and support staff, only 17 teachers were laid off. The other 45 staffers getting pink slips were clerks, security guards and counselors. Steinmiller says saving classroom teachers took advance planning.
At the beginning of the year, he filled vacant positions with teachers from outside the district or charter schools who make less money. In order to make budget, he had to cut all seven teacher's aides, who primarily monitor lunch and recess.
Teachers will now take over. While they appreciate the principal saving jobs, they admit losing aides will be an adjustment for some students
"Some of the kids, they build relationships with our security, our paraprofessionals, and they miss those relationships," Rosalind Faulkner-Booker says.
Although teachers will take over monitoring lunch and recess, art and PE schedules have been adjusted to make sure all teachers still have time for lunch and lesson planning.
