Our town just cut all after school programs

[TammiMcMan]

Our town has been struggling financially for a few years now. In 2002, DD's first grade class had 13 kids in it. For 2003, they had to close down two elementary schools and her second grade class had nearly 30 kids. I paid $100 for my DS to run middle school track and $75 for him to participate in drama and chorus this year. The spring sports program at the high school was funded by some local business's and a semi-pro baseball team because the school had run out of money. Now at this weeks town meeting, the school department budget was cut and they've taken away all sports, fine arts and clubs. I was very afraid that something like this was going to happen and we started looking at private schools during the winter. DS was accepted and luckily he will be able to participate in the sports and fine arts program at his new school. My heart goes out to these kids though. I've lived in this town all my life and I just don't know what's happened. Unfortunately, so many other towns in this area are also having problems. Is this just a Massachusetts issue, or are there other area's of the country who are dealing with the same thing?

 

[mommytotwo]

I have never heard of such a thing happening at other schools. That is terrible and it sounds like the mayor and the school's board of directors need to step in to raise money for everything to be back on track. Has there been any fundraisers to help the school out?
Hope your son likes his new school and there are great improvements at his old school.

 

[CEDmom]

That's too bad. It's not happening in our district. We're actually building a new state of the art HS because our area is booming. How are your property taxes? Is your district receiving any state/federal funding? Are other parents in an uproar? If I had a child is that district I'd sure as heck want to know where all the $$ is going. Hope you get some answers.

 

[oogieboogie]

yeah... in Cleveland, the school district has a $100 million deficit, so some teachers are going to get laid off, some school programs are going to be cut, and other staff are also going to be cut.

I think this is a problem nationwide. Schools are getting less funding from the state but expenses keep going up. I don't think there's going to be any quick solution for this problem.

 

[Mskanga]

Our schools have been made re-open their budgets for the year 2004-2005 because the state just passed an agreement of increase state financial aid for all PA schools.
Our school has been the one to get the most statewide because of the growth in the area . Our school taxes were supposed to go up again this year but because of the increased aid, now state representatives are requesting the schools to re-open their budgets and adjust the school taxes accordingly, they said our taxes should be going down this year not up.

 

[TammiMcMan]

We're actually an old New England town, so we don't have a mayor. We have a town manager, who is hired by a 5 member board of selectman, who are elected by the residents. We also have approximately 50 town meeting members who are voted on to represent their district.

About 10 years ago, this town had a huge capital improvement plan put into place. We were able to build a new fire station, police station, library, elementary school and upgrade our town hall. Since that time things have been going downhill. Our tax rate is $8.63 per 1000, I don't know how that relates to other parts of the country. It's not only the schools that are suffering, we had to close down one of our fire stations and the library is only open on a part time basis, to name just a few. The dismantling of the after school programs just happens to be the most recent cut. We've tried to pass over-rides to increase taxes, but we have a lot of older families and elderly who are on a fixed budget. Every school, every program, everyone in this town has done some sort of fundraising over the year. News crews are all over the town hall and people are very upset.

From personal experience, I'm involved in the towns soccer program. We have about 750 children enrolled for both the spring and the fall. We play on town fields, but they haven't had the money to maintain them. Our league has ended up leasing the soccer fields from them and we are paying to fix them. Our towns baseball team finished 2nd in the little league world series last year and they are also trying to raise funds in order to build a better baseball field for the town.

I think this is going to get a lot worse before we see any light at the end of the tunnel. (and hopefully that light won't be an oncoming train)

 

[maroney495]

The state legislature consolidated all small districts(those under enrollment of 350) here in Arkansas efficetive July 1, 2004. We lost our school where we live and my DD and I work. We hope to keep an elementary campus(DD is an elementary teacher) open in our town for a couple of years. My job (as district business manager) is gone and I now work in the admin office at the new district. My DS will be going to school at the receiving district's HS next year. I grew up here, have worked for the District 21 years and live just a couple of blocks from the campus and my former office. It is really sad to think of these buildings (the building I work in was built in 1914) empty and boarded up. I will have to get use the the 20 mile drive daily and all the other changes to come.

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

hi. i could not believe when i heard that on the news last night. i think it is totally ridiculous............ hopefully they will come up with a way to keep the sports going. we all hope so for you guys.

 

[TammiMcMan]

Thanks Dippy,

We've had some great support from area business's in the past. How much more we can keep asking for though? I don't know how this is going to affect college applications for the seniors. There's only about 7 weeks before the kids head back to school though, so hopefully a solution will turn up soon.

 

[momm2four]

I had to look to see if you lived in Chattanooga. Everything's getting cut here...resource officers, consulting teachers, Middle School sports, teaching positions, custodians, bus service to the High Schools, etc, etc, etc.

Our superintendent needed 22million and asked county commission. Wanted commissioners to pass a property tax increase to raise $ for schools. It was voted down 5-4, so now everyone is mad at the five commissioners who voted no. Putting ads in the paper saying these five are responsible for all the lay-offs, cut backs. Big, fat MESS!

I sure hope they get this straightened out, since I plan on going back into teaching in the next year or so, and finding jobs in a system like that is not fun.

Lori P.