St. Francis schools use stimulus funds to hire teachers

St. Francis schools wasted little time finding a classroom use for some of its federal stimulus money.

The district hired back five elementary teachers who had been laid off in February. That ensures that class sizes will be lower next year than what was previously expected.

The north suburban district was facing a loss of 47 teachers -- 17 of whom were retiring and not being replaced -- going into the 2009-2010 school year. Then came President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is pumping billions of dollars into schools nationwide.

According to St. Francis Superintendent Ed Saxton, the district was able to apply $631,000 of its funds, which cover the next two years, toward bringing back the five teachers.

"That was a happy day around the district," he said. "Because we had some excellent teachers we were letting go."

The money came from the stimulus package's special education allocation. Of that $1.3 million total allocation for St. Francis, the district was allowed to use half of it for regular classroom needs because school districts often have to raid their regular education budgets to pay special education costs.

Educators have characteristically talked about dealing cautiously with federal stimulus money because of its transient nature; it could be tough to continue paying for new or rehired teachers once the federal money runs out.

"We will take the funds available and use it in the most strategic way available to help as many kids as we can," he said. "There are kids in this equation, and we can't let the adult world mess up the kids. We have to figure out how to get the most instruction to our kids at every level."

With the rehired teachers, Saxton said, next year's elementary school class sizes will average 17-21 at the kindergarten level, 21-26 in the first-through-third grades, and 26-32 in the fourth and fifth grades. Without the five teachers coming back, class sizes would have been somewhat higher, generally in the upper 20s and low 30s.

Saxton noted that many school districts are holding off filling next year's staffing needs until a clearer education funding picture emerges from the Legislature. That's not what St. Francis wanted to do.

"We didn't want our people in limbo," he said. "And we didn't want to be shopping for instructors at the same time everybody else is. But that's just us."

St. Francis had to make $5.6 million in cuts for next year. The district remains undecided whether to hold a levy referendum this November to raise more funds, Saxton said.