Music Sheets | Back To School, But Not All Teachers Are Attending
Teaching is all Daniel Beder has known, and teaching is all he plans to do — whether he is employed by a school district or not.
Beder, 27, was a third-year orchestra teacher at Gregory Middle School in Naperville, until he was cut from the Indian Prairie School District as a result of the state’s budget crisis. Since that time, the district has rehired half the teachers it cut, but Beder was not one of them.
There is a chance Beder could be recalled, but he isn’t hopeful. Funding for the middle school music technique classes, which Beder taught, was trimmed to help shave $12.2 million from the district’s budget.
Districts have yet to see the exact impact of an emergency $26 billion federal stimulus bill signed by President Obama this past week. The bill is focused on bringing back and attracting teaching jobs to public schools. Districts should be given money within 45 days through their states.
Meanwhile, Beder is teaching private cello lessons, serving as a conductor of an Elgin youth symphony orchestra and is considering filling maternity leaves if such positions are available.
“The funny thing is, it should be easier than when I first looked for a job because now I have experience. But I go through phases of not being worried about it to being freaked out. It’s just frustrating,” he said.
As a new school year begins soon in districts all across the area, hundreds of teachers cut last spring with reduction in force notices, or RIFs, are thankfully heading back to the classroom.
Every spring, school districts put out RIF lists, which name the teachers who will not be called back in the fall if cuts are necessary, as required by law. But many school districts found themselves with much larger RIF lists than normal because of state funding cuts.
Naperville School District 203 was among those districts not hit as hard. No teachers were laid off because of state funding, Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said.
“When we looked at our staffing, we were able to maintain our current staffing and not RIF any permanent staff,” Mitrovich said. “In fact, due to the normal turnover, we hired (about) 70 new teachers — to replace people, not in addition to. There’s some prudent decision making that’s been made over the years that allows for that.”
Those new teachers were hired to replace people who retired or chose to leave the district, he said. Part of the reason the district was spared is because state funding makes up just 9 percent of District 203′s overall budget, while 17 percent of District 204′s budget comes from Springfield.
Area school districts that made the most cuts in March — Indian Prairie among them — have since been able to recall a substantial number of teachers. And if funding allows it, more teachers could still come back on the first day of school.
Indian Prairie teachers union President Val Dranias said virtually all third- and fourth-year teachers have been rehired. The hardest hit sector was elementary school teachers. But dozens of jobs were protected to help keep class sizes between 31 and 33 pupils, she said.
On one hand, the teachers who have been recalled have been able to let out a sigh of relief. On the other hand, they may miss a few familiar faces — those of their colleagues who were not rehired.
But there will be a whole lot of local educators not teaching in the area at all. Some RIF’ed Indian Prairie School District teachers, for example, have found work in North Shore districts such as Maine East, New Trier and Winnetka.
“There’s not a whole lot out there, and there’s a lot of unemployed teachers,” Beder said.
For teachers on both sides of the spectrum, the past few months have been filled with worry, anticipation, frustration and relief. But at the same time, the state’s budget crisis has made these teachers resilient and hopeful.
As for Beder, he said he could keep applying for and filling maternity leave positions if that’s what it takes to teach. Even though the work would be steady, he wouldn’t have health benefits.
Beder is certified to teach music and math. He hopes to land a position in either specialty and has an equal love for both. There really isn’t much else he could do, Beder explains.
“I’ve never thought of doing anything (other) than teach. It’s in my blood. My parents are both teachers. Growing up, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” he said.
But the crisis over funding education does upset him. What has resulted from the state’s inability to pay its bills is students getting less attention and an abundance of educators out of work.
That’s one thing Beder is worried about — the job candidate pool for teaching jobs. Even though he was notified he would be unemployed in March, Beder did not begin his job search until May. He said he feels he may be facing stiff competition now.
Part of the problem, Beder said, is that the Indian Prairie school board was still making decisions about cuts and funding to music technique classes at that time.
“It was frustrating because no one really knew what was going on. People kept saying, ‘Oh, you’ll have a job,’” Beder said.
Beder added that when he finally had to tell his students, some of them cried.
“It’s nice to know I made an impact on them to get them to feel that way when I wouldn’t be there,” he said.
But in the bigger picture, some educators say local school districts have been fair in trying to bring back as many teachers as possible.
Staff writer Kathy Cichon contributed to this story.
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