The Joliet Township High School District 204 Board of Education on Tuesday approved the district's staffing recommendations for the 2025'6 school year, authorizing a formal request for 462.4 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions.

During a presentation to the board, Diane McDonald (presenter, district staff) said, "we are formally requesting 462.4, FTE for this upcoming school year." She told the board the request represents an increase of 1.8 FTE from the current year and comes while the district is seeing a decline in student enrollment.

The staffing presentation placed the FTE request in context: the district submits an annual fall housing report to the State of Illinois and is using projected enrollments to guide hires. McDonald outlined priority hires and program changes included in the request: a bilingual social worker and an instructional coach at West Campus (already board-approved), a math interventionist at Central Campus, additional MTSS release time for Central and West to support English learner students, and 0.2 FTE added for an EL testing coordinator at Central. She also said paraprofessional vacancies remain and the district will continue summer hiring efforts for bus drivers, security and instructional aides.

McDonald described workforce challenges: "This upcoming school year 20 five-twenty 6, we have 7 teachers right now, that will be retiring," and said the retirees are concentrated in high-need subjects including math, science, ESL and special education. She noted the district posts anticipated openings early for high-need positions to begin recruiting sooner.

The presentation also covered program- and course-level staffing decisions. McDonald explained how the staffing pool supports programs such as the Freshman Academy, MTSS teams, bilingual EL programs and new pre-AP biology for ninth grade. She described the process for low-enrollment classes (defined in the presentation as fewer than 20 students selecting a class) and said some specialized classes did not meet thresholds or lacked certified staff and therefore were not recommended to run.

Board members asked clarifying questions during the presentation about building layout and staffing distribution, and the presenter described differences in security staffing at Central because of the building's four-floor layout. The board praised efforts to maintain manageable work weeks for staff and to focus FTE on equity and student support.

After the presentation the board moved the staffing recommendations to a vote and approved them during the action items portion of the meeting. The motion to approve staffing carried on a roll-call vote; recorded voting members responded in the affirmative.

The district will post and recruit for the approved positions, and administrators said they will continue to monitor retirements and enrollment shifts as staffing is finalized over the spring and summer.