Sterling to eliminate positions in response to budget crisis

STERLING – Several Sterling public school teachers will not be back next school year as the district tries to cut $2.2 million from its budget to make up for drastically reduced state funding.

The Sterling Board of Education Wednesday approved "honorable discharges" for seven elementary school teachers and three Whiteside Area Career Center vocational school instructors.

The board also dismissed four staff members, two from the district and two from the WACC, and eight aides.

Many workers from both entities were reduced from full-time to two-thirds status.

Sterling schools, like many in the state, are cutting staff and programs after Gov. Pat Quinn's budget reduced state education funding by $1.3 billion next year. The state already is behind on its payments to schools this year.

The board emerged from a 2-hour closed session around 10:20 Wednesday night to outline next fiscal year's proposed budget to a room full of anxious faculty and staff members.

In addition to money saved by cutting staff, the district plans to plug the $2.2 million hole in its budget by reducing costs, raising student fees, tapping into its financial reserves and relying on more than $200,000 in A+ Initiative funds from the Sterling Schools Foundation.

"We are in uncharted waters," Superintendent Tad Everett said in response to the proposed cuts. "We are in a place we have not been before."

Among those at Wednesday's meeting was Liz Nehrkorn, second-grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary and president of the Sterling Education Association, the teachers union.

"I had been in contact with the superintendent and the human resource director, so we knew of the honorable dismissals prior to tonight, so we weren't shocked," Nehrkorn said.

"All throughout the state, schools are cutting their budgets because they are not getting funded through the state, therefore, that affects the teachers and the programs within the schools."

Budget shortfall

Here's how the Sterling School Board will make up a $2.2 million budget shortfall for 2010-11:

Increased student fees: $56,000

Sterling Schools Foundation A+ Initiative funds: $227,000

Reserve funds: $818,000

Cutting education fund expenditures (which includes staff salaries): $1,142,347.

Total: $2,243,347

Those cut

The 17 Sterling Community Unit 5 employees members who lost their jobs Wednesday in what’s referred to as an honorable discharge are:

District teachers

■ Jenna Albert, kindergarten, Franklin

■ Jill Royer, Title I, Franklin

■ Amy Smit, second grade, Franklin

■ Emily Clark, fifth grade, Lincoln

■ Daniel Clemen, fifth grade, Lincoln

■ Alisha Snow, kindergarten, Jefferson

■ Heidi Spotts-Manthey, elementary music, Jefferson/Lincoln

Aides

■ Susan Austin, Sonrisa Hubbard and Darci Imel, Franklin

■ Pete Barajas, Washington

■ Stacey Harrington, Lincoln

■ Richard Lund, Challand

■ Terri Porter and Monte Strating, SHS

District staff members

■ Lisa Quass, part-time receptionist, district office

■ Teresa Villarreal, in transportation

At the Whiteside Area Career Center, five people lost their jobs. They are:

Teachers

■ Rollie Conkling, auto services

■ John Gehrke, building trades

■ Steve Bierdeman, welding

Staff members

■ Tom DePasquale, student services coordinator

■ Cecelia Duncan, secretary to the assistant director