Unit 5 is charging ahead with a plan to cut $2.1 million in teaching jobs and educational programs next year – but the show will go on for the district’s fifth-grade band and orchestra program.
WGLT sat down with Unit 5 school board members Amy Roser and Barry Hitchins to discuss how they are attempting to manage a budget with a multimillion-dollar gap in education expenses.
Unit 5 leaders are looking at cutting three dozen full-time teaching positions and two administrator roles for next school year, as well as eliminating two programs fifth-grade band/orchestra and eighth-grade foreign language to address a multi-million dollar deficit.
Nearly two dozen speakers aired frustrations during public comments at the Unit 5 school board's meeting Wednesday night, while a sign-waving crowd applauded from their seats in the Normal Community West High School auditorium.