School Budget Cuts!!

[cjcouple]

I can't even believe this.

My old home town (school I went to) is trying to cut $5.6 mill from their budget next year - 3.6 of it from the HS.  

The HS proposed cuts/solution is to have lecture halls for the 4 core subjects. English, Math, Science and Social Studies will be taught by 1 teacher each. There will be 4 classes happening at once in different areas of their auditorium.  Over 200 students in the hall at once.  Classes will range from 35-100 students!
over 30 science classes will be turned into study halls!!  Not to mention everything but varsity sports were cut and over 100+ staff members are out! Crazy!

They middle schools are moving to 40 students per classroom and are cutting all AP and Foreign Languages.  I am actually relieved I am not there anymore.  
 

[nicolewi]

That is CRAZY!!!!

[auroraloo]

Only 5.6 mil?

Our district had to cut 30 million.

Not saying it as a competition, but an illustration that it is super common, and unless people activate and advocate, it is only going to get worse.

[lala]

Jul 12, 2017 12:17:57 GMT -5 auroraloo said:

Only 5.6 mil?

Our district had to cut 30 million.

Not saying it as a competition, but an illustration that it is super common, and unless people activate and advocate, it is only going to get worse.

the size of the district is really important here. Cuts are cuts no matter the size and super hard to do. But couldn't $30m to a HUGE district be comparable to $5.6 to a small one? 

We are a relatively small district of 4600 students. I don't even know how we'd start to cut $30m in one year. 

Anyway, totally agree on your last statement, our state legislature is out of control with their education funding and I'm very worried given the federal situation, too. 

[lala]

cjcouple - that's awful. I know they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, but that plan for the auditorium sounds chaotic and untenable.

[expectantsteelerfan]

That sounds truly awful.

[cjcouple]

Jul 12, 2017 12:33:15 GMT -5 lala said:

cjcouple - that's awful. I know they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, but that plan for the auditorium sounds chaotic and untenable.

It really does sound terrible. I know my friends are worried.

[cjcouple]

Jul 12, 2017 12:32:32 GMT -5 lala said:

Jul 12, 2017 12:17:57 GMT -5 auroraloo said:

Only 5.6 mil?

Our district had to cut 30 million.

Not saying it as a competition, but an illustration that it is super common, and unless people activate and advocate, it is only going to get worse.

the size of the district is really important here. Cuts are cuts no matter the size and super hard to do. But couldn't $30m to a HUGE district be comparable to $5.6 to a small one? 

We are a relatively small district of 4600 students. I don't even know how we'd start to cut $30m in one year. 

Anyway, totally agree on your last statement, our state legislature is out of control with their education funding and I'm very worried given the federal situation, too. 

Definitely. I will have to look up their budget.

My current towns entire education budget is 30mill so district size matters for sure.

[dizzycooks]

That is terrible. Unfortunately unless the general public starts supporting education budgets/referendums and talking with their govt reps this is not the end of the problems. I can't imagine how kids will learn in that environment.

[cjcouple]

So according to google, it looks like after the cuts the new education budget for the district is 70.6M and they have just over 6000 students enrolled last year.

I have a lot of friends and most of my family still live there and they are very worried for their kids. I can't blame them.

[auroraloo]

Jul 12, 2017 12:32:32 GMT -5 lala said:

Jul 12, 2017 12:17:57 GMT -5 auroraloo said:

Only 5.6 mil?

Our district had to cut 30 million.

Not saying it as a competition, but an illustration that it is super common, and unless people activate and advocate, it is only going to get worse.

the size of the district is really important here. Cuts are cuts no matter the size and super hard to do. But couldn't $30m to a HUGE district be comparable to $5.6 to a small one? 

We are a relatively small district of 4600 students. I don't even know how we'd start to cut $30m in one year. 

Anyway, totally agree on your last statement, our state legislature is out of control with their education funding and I'm very worried given the federal situation, too. 

Totally. 

[erbear]

Wut?!

[jag01]

That is so incredibly sad. In what kind of ways do you start cutting millions of dollars out of a budget? How does it change the day to day operations in the schools? How many kids in each class? What services are the first to be cut?

[auroraloo]

Jul 12, 2017 13:58:28 GMT -5 dizzycooks said:

That is terrible. Unfortunately unless the general public starts supporting education budgets/referendums and talking with their govt reps this is not the end of the problems. I can't imagine how kids will learn in that environment.

REally, it NEEDS to come from the local legislatures, because you can't do a referendum/levy for TEACHERS. Like, we have to cut 30 million, but we are 1:1 iPad because we did a levy for it. But we had to cut 5 teachers in my school (about 25 teachers total last year, so that's HUGE) because we don't have money for teachers. 

So donate to donorschoose. Donate to adopt a classroom, those are super important. (I will gladly give up my capital improvement budget to hire a teacher, if I can get my furniture from donorschoose)

But write, call, or run for the legislatures in your state. Because that is where change will happen. 

[sparkythelawyer]

Do you think the district is doing it to shock the community into action?