Our District Staff
Our district employs 258 teachers and resource professionals, all fully certified by the State of Illinois. Specialist teachers (physical education, special education, music, preschool, and bilingual) are certified in their specialization, and more than 70 teachers are accredited in gifted education. Fifty-six percent of professional staff have their masters degree or above. Average teacher tenure in the district is about 15 years.
The district employs 21 resource professionals (speech therapists, social workers, full-time psychologists, counselors, a librarian and a registered school nurse), a substance abuse prevention program coordinator, a fulltime truant officer, 8 library aides, 3 health aides, 6 bilingual aides and 45 classroom aides, most assigned to special education programs.
Extensive professional development opportunities are provided by District 187 and by the Lake County Educational Service Center.
District teachers and teachers aides are represented by an AFT affiliate, the North Chicago Teachers Union. A 3-year contract with the union was signed in October, 2003. For information contact union president Deborah Lawson (dlawson@nchi.lfc.edu) at Forrestal School.