Hinsdale High School District 86 Board
Among other business at their virtual meeting Thursday, board members:
• voted 6-1 to set the staffing level at 375.4 full-time equivalents for Hinsdale Central, Hinsdale South, the Transition Center and HAVEN for the 2020-21 school year, a increase of 3.9 FTE from this school year. An “ideal” plan the board reviewed at its March 19 meeting called for an increase of 9.3 FTEs, which would have provided lower class sizes across the board.
Many requests in that plan were addressed in the revised “flat” plan administrators were directed to create, Superintendent Tammy Prentiss said. But the revised plan does stick more closely to the 25:1 student-teacher ratio the board has set as a maximum.
Board member Erik Held said the additional $500,000 needed to pay for the ideal plan should instead be dedicated to the capital improvement fund.
“At the end of the day, we had talked about how we can’t spend $139 million in referendum dollars to improve these schools to then fast forward and realize we’ve gone years or decades of not doing any capital improvements because we’ve had other issues along the way,” he said.
Board member Kevin Camden, the only board member to attend the meeting in person, voted no.
“I don’t like to see classes creeping north of 22 and 23 in fundamental areas,” he said.
• unanimously approved bid packages related to construction projects at the high schools, including a $278,100 bid from Otis Elevator Co. for 20 elevators, and landscaping bids for $328.900 from Breezy Hill Nursery for Central and for $46,000 to Landworks Ltd. for South.
• agreed to hold another meeting of the facility naming committee and postpone a recommendation on naming the new swimming pool at Hinsdale Central. That recommendation was set to be made at the April 9 meeting and now will be made April 23. Policy committee Chairman Kathleen Hirsman had inadvertently not been invited to the meeting.
• heard public comment from several residents in the Hinsdale South attendance area who believe the staffing decisions for the 2020-21 school year indicate the board does not prioritize curriculum alignment, as the enrollment disparity between the two schools means fewer opportunities for South students
