A week after passing a budget laced with $12.5 million in cuts, School District 43 is in the midst of a massive reorganization that will take weeks, even months, to sort out.
Last week, most employees whose jobs would be affected were given notice, said superintendent Tom Grant, but bumping and reassignments will take some time and there may be severance and arbitrations under collective agreements to resolve as well.
It's not a happy time, he acknowledged, but efforts to deal with the job reductions are being taken in the most dignified manner possible, Grant said.
"I think people are still on tenterhooks," he said. "Reductions that are at this level always take a toll on morale, on psyche, on people's feelings. We're trying to acknowledge, accommodate, and be as careful as we can in dealing with our employees because I think they have been loyal employees to this district for a long, long time."
Job changes are expected to occur at the board office, where an assistant superintendent will take over the role of student services director, and in the the staff development department, where most of the coordinators are leaving.
There will be changes in the student services department as well, with the loss of the director and cuts to hours of some workers. Clerical and custodian jobs are being reduced, as well.
And on June 4, the board of education is expected to decide on what kind of forensic audit it needs to investigate past mistakes in budgeting.
