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Lunch, Recess Monitors Cut at Sutherland Elementary to Meet Budget Demands

 Students at Sutherland Elementary School will no longer have separate lunch and recess monitors as a result of a mid-year budget cut instituted throughout Chicago Public Schools. Teachers in Beverly will fill in the void, principal Eric Steinmiller said.
Students at Sutherland Elementary School will no longer have separate lunch and recess monitors as a result of a mid-year budget cut instituted throughout Chicago Public Schools. Teachers in Beverly will fill in the void, principal Eric Steinmiller said.
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DNAinfo/Howard A. Ludwig

BEVERLY — Principal Eric Steinmiller held an assembly Tuesday at Sutherland Elementary School in Beverly to discuss some of the changes students can expect after the latest round of budget cuts.

Most notably, the school at 10015 S. Leavitt St. will no longer have separate lunchroom and recess monitors as result of the mid-year cost reductions mandated by Chicago Public Schools, Steinmiller said.

Instead, teachers will begin staffing lunch and recess in a move that will save an estimated $30,000, Steinmiller said.

"We will have zero impact to our instruction," he said. "One hundred percent of our teachers, their jobs are safe."

Sutherland is facing $99,670 in cuts or 2.83 percent of its overall budget after CPS called for the cuts Feb. 9. The move impacts all schools to varying degrees and is designed to save $120 million citywide.

Officially, Sutherland eliminated nine part-time positions. Two of these positions were already vacant, and the former lunch and recess monitors worked just 2½ hours each day, Steinmiller said.

He said the budget cuts had been looming since August. Thus, he'd made contingency plans that prepared for reductions ranging from $150,000-$350,000. By comparison, the roughly $100,000 mid-year cuts proved manageable.

Ahead of the announced reductions, Steinmiller said he squirreled away about $45,000, mostly through personnel moves that saw some higher-paid teachers advance in the system by taking positions elsewhere.

Steinmiller said those employees were replaced by others who were cheaper. The remainder of the cutbacks were satisfied through budgetary maneuvering and school supply reductions, he said.

The principal in his second year at Sutherland said he worked both with the Local School Council and teachers to prepare ahead of the cutbacks. Teachers will not receive additional pay for working lunchroom and recess.

Rather, the time to oversee these tasks will be incorporated into the daily routine through a series of scheduling adjustments that are designed to maintain the same amount of time for instruction, he said.

Steinmiller added that the lunchroom and recess monitor jobs proved to be a bit of a revolving door. As a result, these monitors often struggled to get to know the students which played out through confrontations between students at recess.

Conversely, the teachers know all of the students as well as their personalities. Thus, Steinmiller believes their presence at lunchtime and recess will lead to fewer problems.

"It is something that the teachers wanted to do anyway," he said.

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