Crystal Lake-based School District 155 Board to consider 8 layoffs

CRYSTAL LAKE – The Community High School District 155 Board could vote Tuesday to lay off eight employees, including a physical education teacher facing felony financial exploitation charges.

District 155 Superintendent Steve Olson was not available for comment Monday on the potential layoffs listed on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, or whether the recommended dismissal of one teacher, Rick Lima, is related to pending criminal charges against him.

Lima was arrested in January and charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person. He is accused of stealing more than $50,000 from an elderly woman and using the money to buy a home.

District 155 officials confirmed last month that Lima, who also has coached varsity girls basketball at Prairie Ridge High School, has remained an active employee at the school. His next court appearance is scheduled for Friday.

Prairie Ridge High School could lose four employees, Crystal Lake South High School could lose three, and Cary-Grove High School could lose one.

Declining enrollment led the district to lay off or reduce hours for 10 full-time and five part-time teachers in March 2017. At the time, the district's attorney said the law dictates who the district has to select when there is an economic reduction in force.

The district had 6,277 students enrolled in its schools during the 2016-17 academic year, according to Illinois Report Card.

For the second time, Prairie Ridge High School boys basketball coach Corky Card also potentially faces being laid off.

Last March, Card was told he only would have two classes for the next school year in Prairie Ridge’s physical education/health department, and that he wouldn’t be retained as boys basketball coach, a position he has held since 2003. The coach’s friends and longtime supporters were vocal about their disapproval of his dismissal at the time.

The district later experienced unforeseen staff movement, however, and in June, Card learned he would be brought back as a full-time teacher and coach.

Other employees up for dismissal are Rebecca Adams, Sarah Eastham, Erin Scott, Matthew Swedberg, Haley Wickstrom and Bradley Delisle, according to district documents.

The board will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Center for Education, 1 S. Virginia Road, Crystal Lake.