During a regular meeting on March 21, the Oak Park and River Forest High School Board of Education approved the creation of five full-time staff positions for the 2019-20 school year. Those positions include a secondary pathway coordinator, inclusion facilitator, testing coordinator, security supervisor and food service supervisor.
The board voted 4-3 in favor of the new staff positions. Board President Jackie Moore, along with members Craig Iseli and Tom Cofsky voted against the creation of the positions.
“I will not be voting in favor [of the positions], not because I don’t think they are valuable, but given the changes coming forward this upcoming year, we need to take a step back in terms of trying to do too much at one time,” said Moore during the meeting.
Earlier during the same meeting, Supt. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams presented her proposed administrative realignment, which included phasing out the principal position at OPRF and promoting Greg Johnson, the district’s current assistant superintendent, to the role of associate superintendent. Outgoing OPRF Principal Nathaniel Rouse announced last month that he would be leaving after the end of this school year to pursue another job opportunity.
District officials said that the new positions will help enforce its overall equity goals, most of which are encapsulated in a racial equity policy that the district will finalize in the coming weeks.
The secondary pathway coordinator would be responsible for administering and coordinating career development services to students. The estimated salary for the position is $72,570, with roughly $18,000 in benefits.
The inclusion facilitator, which would help students with disabilities more effectively navigate the educational environment at the high school, would bring in the same salary and benefits as secondary pathway coordinator.
District officials said that the high school critically needs a supervisor to oversee the operations of its Testing Center. Salary and benefits for that position, which is not affiliated with a union, would come to approximately $65,000, officials said.
The costs to the district of adding a campus safety supervisor and kitchen supervisor — both unaffiliated positions — would range from around $55,000 to $73,000, and from roughly $48,000 to $64,000, respectively.
The total cost of the new staff positions is around $270,000, officials said, adding that around $15,000 in additional teacher stipends and $139,000 in salary increases for non-affiliated staffers brings the total increase in administrative and non-affiliated staff payroll costs to nearly $424,000.
During the March 21 meeting, Cyndi Sidor, OPRF’s interim chief school business official, provided a preliminary reductions to the district’s upcoming budget that total $477,000 — more than offsetting the additional payroll costs.
Sidor said that $250,000 of those offsets would come from the district reducing how much it spends on classroom furniture. An additional savings would come from the $62,000 consulting fee that the district doesn’t have to pay now that the Imagine OPRF long-term master facilities process is completed.
Board members Iseli and Cofsky were concerned about the long-term costs of the additional staff positions.
Iseli said that he applauds “the effort of the administration to go back and look at their expenses,” but cautioned that the short-term budget cuts the administration made to offset the new positions “may get us something for a year, for a little bit … We can’t be adding [full-time] positions and cutting other expenses … This is a short-term fix in terms of cutting some of those things.”
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com
