Nippersink District 2, Richmond-Burton High School lay off 44 workers

Nippersink School District 2 and Richmond-Burton High School District 157 laid off 44 employees in the past week, citing a lack of work for bus drivers and cafeteria staff while students are learning remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nippersink School District 2 board unanimously approved removing 18 positions Wednesday night, board President Bert Irslinger said. The remainder of layoffs were finalized last week by the Richmond-Burton High School District 157 board.

“It’s a tough situation; we never like to reduce force of any sort,” Irslinger said. “Nobody likes to see any staff get reduced at any time in any situation, whether at a school or business or anywhere else. However, we have to be conscious of costs and also the need for staffing.”

Laid-off employees will be able to keep their benefits, including health insurance, said Thomas Lind, the superintendent of both districts. The school districts share the same territory in northern McHenry County, one serving elementary-age students and the other serving high school students.

Lind said he hopes to be able to call the laid-off workers back when in-person school resumes.

“They are bus drivers, cafeteria workers, classroom aides. We don’t have 40 hours of work for them,” Lind said.

Some bus drivers are being kept on to transport special education students still receiving some in-person services, as well as to deliver lunches to students who have requested a school meal, Lind said.

Nippersink will retain five cafeteria workers, he said. They will work reduced hours and put together meals for those students. The high school district hires a contractor for cafeteria services, and that contractor will not be paid when there is no in-person school.

Lind said he worries about the impacted employees finding new jobs before the district can afford to return them to work.

“It’s a big worry for us. We understand some of these positions are difficult to fill,” Lind said.

He was unable to immediately provide a dollar figure for how much the move would save the district. Depending on unemployment insurance payouts, the district likely will recoup at least 50% of what it would have paid the workers had they remained employed, he said.

The majority of classroom aides are being retained, Lind said. They have helped remote learning start smoothly by providing a way to break a class into groups for additional online assistance after teacher lessons.

“This is not something we want to do or wanted to do,” he said. “At the same time, we have to maintain the taxpayers’ money and use it in the right way. We can’t pay people full time for another eight weeks that we don’t have jobs for.”

The trend of cutting education budgets by reducing payroll costs for bus drivers, food service workers and classroom associates is not isolated to the two Richmond area districts. Woodstock School District 200 also has decreased the hours of many of those employees, district spokesman Kevin Lyons said.

“About 50 District 200 employees have also taken unpaid leaves of absence for a variety of reasons,” Lyons said. “There’s been some repurposing of employees, but we provide hours for them when there is work the district needs to provide.”

A third of the students in the Woodstock district are in the free or reduced cost lunch program, and district transportation and food services employees are being used to deliver breakfast and lunch to schools and bus stops across the district so students can access the meals while learning remotely.

“We’re also using bus drivers and other employees to deliver technology equipment, books and other items. For example, replacing a malfunctioning Chromebook or a hot spot for a family who lacks Wi-Fi access,” Lyons said.

Additionally, about 200 Woodstock students will return to schools for limited times over the next few weeks. They include students with autism and others who “could benefit from some direct interaction and services such as speech therapy,” Lyons said.

Other students returning to limited in-person school have been identified by district social workers as having social or emotional needs.

The Woodstock district also is bringing back some students in its Everyone Reads program, which is designed to get second graders up to their appropriate grade reading level.

These students will be required to wear masks, will be in small groups and will be appropriately socially distanced, Lyons said. Transportation will be provided to them when needed.

“Only eight students will be allowed on each bus for safety reasons, which will require a fair number of buses and drivers,” he said.