Hinsdale District 86 board reviews 2025–26 staffing plan; debates dean position, multilingual expansion, course cuts and center-district math placements

Superintendent Locke and administrators presented a preliminary certified staffing recommendation for the 2025–26 school year on March 13, and the board extensively questioned changes that would shift staffing across Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South.

The draft staffing plan shows district certified full‑time equivalents (FTE) of 361.1 in 2024–25 and a proposed 360.8 for 2025–26 (a net decrease of 0.3 FTE), while administrators recommended targeted increases in multilingual and special‑education staffing and embedding the district’s Haven program within each high school.

Why it matters: the board must adopt final staffing decisions before April 15 so the district can meet teacher‑contract notice deadlines. Administrators said the proposal balances course offerings, student needs and budget constraints; several board members pressed for clarity about the financial cost of adding sections or protecting existing courses.

Administrators’ proposals and rationale

Superintendent Locke framed staffing as a difficult, trade‑off process that can reduce educators to “points” but stressed the district’s aim to balance student needs and program continuity. “I get anxious because if we’re not careful, the process can sort of distill the essence educator into a number,” Locke said. He urged the board to remember the classroom impact behind each fractional FTE.

Key elements of the administration’s recommendation included: - Embedding the Haven program into each high school’s continuum of special‑education services (administrators said Haven numbers previously shown as district‑level FTE will now be reflected within building FTE; Central’s implementation was described as a 2.4 FTE effect). - Expanding multilingual learner (ML) services at Hinsdale South: the presentation said 2024–25 was the first year of extended services at South and proposed an additional 1.6 FTE to continue building comprehensive programming there; administrators also proposed an extra 0.1–0.2 district release for a multilingual department chair to support instruction across campuses. - A South leadership request for an additional dean to increase capacity for discipline management, MTSS work and restorative/home‑visit supports. Dr. Carrie Peralta, Hinsdale South principal, described the deans’ workload and said referrals per dean per semester at South were “more than double” those at Central; she said more capacity would allow targeted supports such as home visits and scheduled intervention enforcement. “A dean in a school does more than just punitive discipline,” Peralta said. - Reworking Tier‑3 interventions and other intervention models to consolidate resources and reduce singletons through stacked sections where feasible.

Board debate and center‑district requests for advanced math

A major portion of the meeting focused on requests from neighboring elementary/middle districts to place advanced eighth‑grade students into high‑school math sections at District 86 campuses. Administrators reported a set of requests from sending districts (named in the meeting as District 60, District 53 and District 181) for honors geometry and algebra 2/trig honors that would create “bad breaks” (extra sections beyond current divisors) and generate roughly 0.4 FTE of additional staffing cost if the district accepts those students without reimbursement.

Board members debated competing priorities: some said the district should prioritize current D86 students’ course access; others urged neighborly accommodation if sending districts pay or share costs. Superintendent Locke took direction to discuss reimbursement options with sending districts and to prepare quick financial modeling for the finance committee. Several board members asked staff to return with options that could include per‑student charges, direct reimbursement for the incremental FTE, or other agreements.

Course offering adjustments, stacking and singletons

Administrators outlined a detailed list of low‑request and stacked courses at both campuses. Their approach: stack similar courses (for example, acting 1/2/advanced acting; accounting/accounting honors) to increase the likelihood that students can schedule into electives while reducing singletons. They recommended canceling some sections that lack reasonable alternatives and offered travel between campuses as a possible accommodation when one campus will run a course but the other would not. Board members asked staff to attempt travel scheduling where possible before cancelling courses, and some members urged running a small number of low‑enrollment South courses even if that increases cost marginally.

Precalculus / AP Precalculus debate

Administrators presented 20 student requests (9 at Central, 11 at South) for a standard precalculus section that would be distinct from the existing AP Precalculus AB offering. Staff said AP Precalculus AB covers largely similar content but at a faster pace. Counselors had told some students that AP Precalculus and the regular precalculus course are similar; staff reported students’ mixed preferences — some prefer a larger AP section, others want the standard paced course. Several board members said they wanted a standard precalculus section preserved for current students rather than diverting capacity to incoming center‑district students. The board directed administration to return with a concrete proposal and quick financial estimates for adding 0.2–0.4 FTE if necessary, and to seek reimbursement from sending districts for any incremental staffing required to serve their students.

Decisions, action items and next steps

The board did not adopt the staffing plan at this meeting. Administrators requested and the board agreed to rapid follow‑up: staff will refine financial estimates, return with proposed agreements or fee models for sending districts, and present final certified staffing on the board agenda at the next meeting to meet statutory timelines. Administration flagged finance‑committee review on March 19 and a final board decision later in March to meet April 15 contract deadlines.

Votes at a glance

- Approve 1‑year contract for director of deans at Hinsdale Central with Brian Bowen, July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026, salary $135,000 — motion approved (tally reported in minutes: yes 6, no 0). (Action recorded on the March 13 consent/action portion of the agenda.) - Approve student settlement agreement 2025‑001 — motion approved (tally recorded in minutes: yes 7, no 0). - Approve consent agenda (routine items) — motion approved (tally recorded in minutes: yes 7, no 0).

What’s next

Administrators will: (1) run financial models for incremental FTE and proposed per‑student reimbursement options and present results to the finance committee on March 19; (2) continue scheduling work for stacked and travel‑based arrangements; (3) return to the board with a final certified staffing recommendation in time to meet the April 15 notice requirements for teacher contracts. The board asked administration to document options and costs clearly and to tighten suggested policy language on how the district will handle requests from sending districts going forward.

Ending

The discussion stretched across the meeting and prompted several board members to emphasize student‑first priorities and fiscal caution. Administrators said they would return quickly with detailed cost estimates and proposed agreements so the board could act by the statutorily required deadline.