The school that my children attend is trying to find ways to meet their budget. I’m going to be very open and honest in saying that I have never attended a school board meeting. The school has felt the need to make many school budget cuts. I realize that the school my children attend is not the only school in the country that is needing to make cuts. The purpose of this post is to ask you, if you’re school has gone through a similar situation. If so, what did your school do to save money and meet budget?
Our school has eliminated many positions including teacher’s aides, special classes teachers (gym, art, etc), and laid off a few teachers. They pushed 10 teachers to take early retirement and also to cut substitute teachers. They also no longer have the field trips they used to have for the kids. Each grade would go on one field trip a year. Most of them small like a local farm, a circus, etc. My oldest son however was supposed to go to Washington DC this year. 4th and 10th grade go on a day trip to Washington DC. It’s not an overnight trip. My son looked forward to the year he would get to go and now he doesn’t get to go. I realize that fieldtrips are not the most important thing in the world but it was always something for the kids to look forward to . Still I know the school needs to make cuts but from my understanding a lot of the things like special classes will be pushed onto the already overloaded teachers. I have to wonder how this will effect my kids’ education.
Many people in our school district are having mixed emotions. Between anger, sadness, disbelief, and plain old helplessness. I have to wonder if cuts could have been made other places before cutting jobs in our already depressed area. I found a youtube video from a passionate parent in the school district. I think he raises some good points.
I think it’s done tastefully which is why I posted this. This is not an attack on my kids school or board. As I stated I think it would be fantastic to hear what ideas you all have. Things maybe that have worked for your school to save money. I’d love to offer idea up to the school that would be workable or reasonable.
