CHICAGO — Roughly 1,100 Chicago Public Schools employees, including 550 teachers, are being laid off because of declining enrollment, officials said Thursday.
The 550 teachers are eligible to reapply for jobs in the CPS system, officials said. Historically, CPS officials said, more than 60 percent of displaced teachers have found work elsewhere in the district.
CPS said it expects to fill 1,780 teaching vacancies elsewhere in the district prior to the next school year.
The staff reductions included 600 non-teaching positions, which officials described as “educational support personnel” that cover 60 job classifications including clerks, assistant teaching positions and an unspecified number of part-time security personnel.
CPS officials could not say what schools or communities are being hit by the layoffs.
School leaders were contacting impacted teachers by telephone on Thursday, district officials said, and CPS authorities were scheduled to discuss staff reductions with the city’s teachers union later in the day.
CPS officials said the layoffs announced Thursday represent the lowest level of annual teacher reductions implemented in the last five years.