WEST FRANKFORT – At a special Frankfort Community Unit School District 168 School Board meeting this week, the board recommended a dozen cuts through the district. They will go into effect next school year.
The school district’s superintendent, Matt Donkin, tell us music teacher positions at Frankfort Community High School, Frankfort Intermediate School and Central Junior High School will be affected. Donkin says the district will hire a full-time music instructor who will be assigned to several buildings.
Donkin says after the music program had basically been completely cut around 2016, the district had one person teaching music for the district from 2018 until about 2021, when it was able to expand out the additional person to serve more grade levels specifically for music. At this point, the district has posted to shrink that back to where it had been.
Donkin says the district’s goal will be to bring that additional music position back when it can. The school district hired a second music teacher for this school year after a previous director left. That new hire left unexpectedly in December, so the district had to hire someone to finish the year.
The district will also cut a behavioral interventionalist and social worker at Denning Elementary. Instructors for computer science, math, GEAR Up, Special Ed functionalist, and physical education were also affected.
Donkin says several of those positions listed were already vacant and formally chose not to post for their replacements for next year. The district has tried to work through attrition instead of cuts, but Donkin says they weren’t able to accomplish that at this time.
The district has been listed on a warning status list for their finances by the Illinois State Board of Education.
