Additional staff might be needed to handle an influx of new students at Illinois Valley Central School District 321 after tentative registration numbers were revealed at the Aug. 11 school board meeting.
Superintendent Dr. Nick Polyak said the big number to watch is the kindergarten class at Mossville Grade School, which has 70 students divided by three sections.
Polyak said the number is a little bit larger, but not too far off target for what they expected.
Board member Steve Nalley said the number is unacceptable — especially with an estimated six to eight additional walk-in students the first day — and additional teacher aides will not be enough to handle the number of students.
“If you split the students between four teachers or sections, it’s about 17 or 18 to a class. That’s more where we need to be, and I think we need to add a position,” Nalley said.
“I hate waiting until the last minute, but we need to find someone now. The more qualified
teachers already have jobs by now,” Nalley added.
Board member Donna Uebler said she also has concerns with the numbers in second grade at Mossville and third grade at Chillicothe Elementary Center, and they need a closer look.
“These are pivotal years for kids, and I’ve always supported creating another position at the lower grades if the numbers call for it. As for more aides, I don’t think there is a substitute for a good teacher,” Uebler said.
Another large number is the freshman class at IVC High School, which will have 210 students.
“That number pushed the overall high school numbers to 40 additional students this school year.
Basically, we pushed out a smaller senior class and moved in a larger freshman one,” Polyak said.
The board recommended that Polyak go back to the administrators at each school and have them talk to staff and see if additional aide time will be enough to handle the student population, or if additional teachers must be hired.
“We already get hammered by the state to make Adequate Yearly Progress. We need to meet student-teacher ratios to do so. All of this makes it easier to attract people to our district, too,” Nalley said.
In other action and discussion, the board:
• learned from Polyak that Gov. Pat Quinn has been given $1.2 billion in discretionary funds and is using it to infuse many reduced educational programs back to 90 percent.
