GENEVA – The Geneva District 304 School Board unanimously approved a new staffing plan for the 2023-24 school year that will cost the district almost $200,000 more in employee salary and benefit costs.

The board accepted the staffing plan recommendations and three title changes from Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Adam Law at the April 10 meeting.

The title changes will not have additional salary costs, officials said.

“This staffing plan for 2023-24 does reflect the needs that we’ve heard from principals and department heads,” Superintendent Kent Mutchler said.

The additional salary cost would be $159,540. If employees take benefits, the cost could rise to $195,540.

The changes that will result in additional costs are:

• $109,415 for two English language learning teachers with $24,000 as the potential cost of benefits.

• $37,125 for a full-time human resources administrative assistant with $12,000 as the potential cost of benefits.

• $13,000 for a part-time world language teacher.

The district has 157 English language learners registered for the 2023-24 school year, so it needs to increase its English language learning staff, Law said at the March board meeting.

The district also must provide these services to four students who are in private schools, he said.

“Not only is the number of EL students increasing, but they are not necessarily well-consolidated in particular schools,” Law said. “They’re kind of all over the place. And so, this year, we have some EL teachers trying to cover three different schools. And that’s difficult to manage. Two schools is usually the maximum that we would want a teacher to be splitting their time between.”

Grant funding for a part-time human resource administrative assistant is sunsetting, Law said.

“That person has really been key in our department to manage just day-to-day operations, on-boarding of personnel, and just with the planning and everything that goes into a lot of the reporting that we do,” Law said.

“The proposal is to increase the part-time human resources administrative assistant to full-time. Fund that position with district’s dollars. We’ve had that [position] for about a year and a half, so we’ve seen just the value it brings to the department and to the district,” Law said.

Two existing assistants’ job descriptions will be restructured to one for certified staff and one for noncertified and support staff, Law said.

This would allow employees to have one point of contact for their human resources needs, Law said.

Adding a part-time world language teacher will support the Seal of Biliteracy program, Law said.

“The Seal of Biliteracy is something that high school graduates can earn if they demonstrate a level of proficiency – obviously in English – and another world language as well,” Law said. “Here in Geneva, we have this good problem in that this program has really taken off and a lot of students want to earn this Seal of Biliteracy.”

In 2019, Law said about 80 students participated. This year, there are about 230 students participating.

Changes to titles that add no cost:

• Building technician will be changed to technology support technician.

• District technician will be changed to technology support specialist.

• Coordinator of business services will be changed to assistant director of business services.