PILSEN — A total of 10 staff positions will be eliminated at Benito Juarez Community Academy in Pilsen, CPS officials announced.
At Benito Juarez, six teaching positions and four support staff positions are expected to be eliminated, according to a staff impact list released by Chicago Public Schools on Friday. Across the district, nearly 1,000 teachers and support staff positions will be eliminated.
It is unclear how many of the 10 positions will be eliminated through layoffs or through retirement and other vacancies. Juarez Principal Juan Carlos Ocon could not be reached Monday.
Only a handful of schools face more cuts than Juarez, including Jane Addams School (11); Wells Community Academy High School (12); Carl Schurz High School (13); Harlan Community High School (13); Thomas Kelly High School (14); Gallistel Language Academy (15); Steinmetz College Prep High School (15); and Foreman High School (22).
Whitney Young Magnet Academy, a selective-enrollment high school on the Near West Side, is also expected to lose two teaching positions and one support staff position, according to CPS numbers.
CPS officials said the cuts were fewer than all but one other year in the past six years.
"CPS principals continue to do exemplary work protecting their classrooms so that they can build on the remarkable academic progress their students are making," said CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner. "Today’s staffing changes are part of the normal process of school planning, and there are more vacant positions in the District than staff who will be impacted today.”
The district said there are 1,000 teaching vacancies for the upcoming year, and the terminated teachers can apply for those jobs. About 60 percent of laid-off teachers in the past have been rehired full-time, CPS officials said. Another 26 percent of those teachers work as subs in the district.
But the Chicago Teachers Union ripped the move, saying they were unnecessary. The district's latest budget deal could lead to a teachers strike, CTU president Karen Lewis said.
“CPS continues to inflict damage on our school district by implementing layoffs, cutting special education services and other programs that help students excel," Stephanie Gadlin, spokeswoman for the union, said in a statement. "The gutting of experienced educators and other school employees only weakens schools and puts children at a disadvantage. This is no way to run a 21st century school district."
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