What has your public school system cut to save money???

[momgjgc]

Taxes are going up again This years budget had a 16% increase over last years reassessment of 50% increase. I feel bad for the senior citizens who live on a fixed income. The schools are cutting nothing here.
I don't even send my kids to the public school as it will not teach my kids the values I want them to have.

 

[Kae]

We cut busses & they are thinking about staggiering start times.

Kae

 

[dmaz]

All of the above in our district, including staggered times. Our school does not start until 9:25am. Horrendous situation for working parents, who are forced to pay for before care if they want to keep their jobs. Which of course is more money for the district.
My DD does not have lunch until 1:25 - she's starving by then!

 

[locolala]

Up here they're talking about eliminating the gifted programs. Yet another reason we're gonna homeschool if we're still in MD when we have kids.

 

[cogero]

so far nothing.Our PTA pays for the theatre arts program and we will be doing more fundraising I am sure.If they want to shorten the school year here in NYC I am all for it. MY child will spend the next 2 weeks playing games

 

[Mrs.Toad]

My job.

That's...all I want to say about that.

 

[PollyannaMom]

WOW, is that with one teacher?

Yep...

A few years ago, they had a similar crisis, but cut specials and shortened the school day. (It lasted for a couple of semesters before they got funding back.) A lot of parents hated that (DS wasn't in school yet, so my info is not first-hand, just what I heard) and I guess they think this will be better?

Personally, I'm not so sure - as a mom or as a sub!

It really is a tough call. If you cut specials, the teachers don't get a break, and some kids lose the only part of the school day they actually like. But with 35 in a classroom, kids lose out on individual attention, and teachers are put in a tougher position as far as discipline, classroom set-up, and even homework assignments go.

We do have a great parent volunteer group, and I'm sure they will be a big help, but I'm still nervous about the whole thing.

 

[Deffenm]

We just had a levy fail here for the second time. To make up for the deficit our schools cut teachers and increased class sizes, closed 2 elementary schools and one special education school, cut all middle and high school sports and music, are closing the buildings right after school and eliminating latch key. They also cut all high school bussing. Our schools are in sad shape. I am so thankful I am able to homeschool but I do feel bad that the other kids are going to suffer.

Unfortunately, people can not afford the increase in taxes. My taxes are already $6,000/year with almost 3K going to the school. A new levy will raise my taxes almost $100/month. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is 25% of my grocery budget or my kids piano lessons, or swimming, or dance. I voted in favor of the levy but it was going to mean I would have to take things away from my own family to support the schools. There needs to be a change in how schools are funded. It is so sad!

You wouldn't happen to be in Southwestern City Schools in Columbus Ohio would you? This is exactly what our schools are doing. I hate to see the kids losing out on these opportunities but I hate even more that the school district won't entertain alternative solutions to the problem. They just want the levy to pass and they get their money and that is it. That won't fix the problem because we passed a levy 2 years ago and they under budgeted and now they need more money. I could go on and on about this but I won't. I wish they would manage the school budgets like they do their own personal accounts and the state would fix how they provide money to the schools.

 

[toystorymom]

I was told a few days ago I would not be back next year because of budget cuts. I am the school nurse.

 

[Colleen27]

Our district is consolidating the elementaries, but that has more to do with falling enrollment/shrinking population than budget issues. My kids' school has a half-dozen ununsed classrooms and the school they're closing only has one class per grade (K-5), so it is a very logical move. The staff from the other school will be moving except for a prinicpal who was scheduled to retire at the end of the year, and our elems already share "specials" teachers (art, music, PE, etc) because having one per building with schools as small as ours is overkill. The savings will mainly be on utilities and that one less administrator.

Our schools seem to be exceptionally well-run compared to public schools elsewhere. We have a reserve built into the budget and amazing community support, so we don't feel the effects of funding issues as quickly as many other districts. The district is realizing substantial utility savings right now thanks to a special millage to renovate several buildings to improve energy efficiency, which has also helped by freeing up money for important programs.

 

[NJtoATL]

MY SALARY!!!!!

Some how the manage to have 1 million dollars to pay the lawyer fee for two and half month's worth of work

 

[bubblycoconut]

In our area they have closed some of the smaller schools and moved the kids to the larger schools. I noticed they mainly did this with schools that were within walking distance to each other. To me it made sense but a lot of the parents had problems with it because at the smaller schools they had maybe 10 or 15 children to a classroom (sometimes less) where as in the larger schools they will have about 20 or 25 students per class.

 

[tiggertabi]

We had salaries frozen (even though we negotiated a crappy contract 3 years ago and this was supposed to be the 3rd year grrr), we're not "cutting" teachers but we're not adding either. No more supply money (or very little). It's very sad.

 

[Leajess99]

Let's see, my youngest DD's school has decided that it is okay to just let the mold grow because the "independent contractor says the mold is not a problem and within minimum standards." Funny thing is that there are no set standards on levels of mold so my youngest will be homeschooled now. I can no longer risk putting her in a school that makes her so sick that she has to rely on her rescue inhaler and steroids to breathe. I brought it to the attention of the school board and of course they see no issues.

 

[Leajess99]

I was told a few days ago I would not be back next year because of budget cuts. I am the school nurse.

So sorry you lost your job as well.

We lost our school nurse last year or the year before. That really goes over well because this year there were several broken bones, my 11 year old daughter fell off the bars and landed on her head (no call home) fractured her toe in the fall, and sick kids galore. Our school gets rid of teachers and hires more teachers each year.

 

[cathy_s]

I teach in a very large school system. We started the 2008-2009 year by "downsizing" about 500 positions. Those 500 are obviously not all teachers. The positions were throughout the entire school system from plumbers to truck drivers to therapists to administration. The state's projection is that our district may have to cut as much as $107 million for the next school year.

The budget models do not propose any raises for any employee for the next 3 years. At the moment, salary reductions and/or furloughs are expected during the 2009-2010 school year. Due to a loss in tax revenue in our county, a "supplement" to teacher pay (actually part of the salary) will be lost. It's about $550 per teacher.

Our district has closed schools-5 elementary and 2 middle schools. Teachers on yearly contracts (new teachers or teachers who have returned after an extended leave) lost their jobs. Those vacancies will hopefully be enough to absorb the veteran teachers who worked at the closed schools. If there are any vacancies to be filled after the displaced have been "hired" then the yearly contract teachers will have to battle it out for the still vacant positions. Four teachers from my school are out of work.

I read that a pervious poster, a school nurse, just lost her job. I'm so sorry to hear that happened to you. Your students have been fortunate to have you up until this point. In this area a school nurse is unheard of. They only exist in schools with a large population of medically fragile children. Our medical emergencies are are "treated" by the most overworked individuals in the schools. The ladies in the office are our medical team. In between phone calls and paperwork they dispense medication and administer first aid.

It's bleak.

 

[karliebug]

At my school we have eliminated 12 teaching positions for next year but no one has lost their job because some people are retiring and we just aren't hiring for their positions and are shuffling positions around.

 

[Sydnoahmom]

We lost our art program a few years ago. 6th grade sports have been run by parents, but now will be official school activities and we are hiring a part time athletic director.

Sorry, kids you can't have a well rounded education with art, but you can learn to dribble a basketball.

 

[parkers*momma]

At my sons school no lab in chemistry and biology, no elementary art, music, and gym, no title one, no speech, no pre-school, back to 1/2 day kindergarten, no field trips, less teachers and larger classrooms.

BUt hey, we still have all sports programs with paid coaches and assistant coaches, transportation to the games, etc.

I'm really wondering how many kids will benefit in 10 years from playing high school basketball vs those children who were in title one, going to college with lab experience in chemistry and biology, speech, or any one of the specials. Since when is sports more important than education?


As for my Daughter's school, they have eliminated pre-school and title one plus made sports as a play/pay program with sponsers. If a child wants to play sports they have to pay to play. If they can't afford to pay, ppl in the community have donated to a sports fund to help those who can't afford the dues so everyone has a chance to play.

Maybe more schools should do this and use the money earmarked for sports to be used for classes and the ppl who feel sports are important donate for those who can't afford it.

 

[rainydayplay]

I'm not so sure what's been cut...our district has managed a multi-million dollar savings account...that plus stimulus dollars have (hopefully) balanced everything out. There were a few people let go, but for poor performance rather than budget cuts. (Of course...we're getting six new coaches...And we're all still trying to do the math and figure out where these coaches are going to go. 3 teach PE (although one also supposedly doubles as an instructional aide...and the aide for the contained class was one who was fired), and we already have a tenured PE coach...and I doubt they'd put a man in the girls' PE position that opened up (she found a "better" job).

Field trips are limited, yes. No new construction that I know of (including replacing crappy "open-classroom" building that is a throwback from the 70s that came from California that was stolen from the UK....) Possibly still will be at 2 SPED/inclusion teachers, that aren't really inclusion teachers because the have to teach 4 classes of students who can't be in a regular classroom (that's one each for the 4 core subjects, not 4 per teacher!) and somehow get around to all of our classrooms when we have SPED students, and somehow work in a 45 minute planning period. Mostly, big things not happening atm.

Maybe I should have paid more attention...but I was too worried about whether or not I would get tenure -- with the economy being what it is, I passed up a chance at what may have been a once-in-a-lifetime position at the school my DD will attend this fall (a K-12) that is 7 miles from home and would eliminate daycare costs all together in favor of job security where I would still have to pay at least part time daycare plus drive 30 miles one way, plus not have the same spring break as my DD. Job security rules.