POTWIN, Kan. - After my previous post on the budget cuts and their effect on my daughter's school, I was able to obtain a list of the cuts which are below.
What amazes me is the 50 percent cut to classroom budgets. Are schools being left to depend on the teachers paying for necessary items? It's either that, or teachers go without. And postponing the purchase of new text books and reducing the library budget? I noticed that they planned on reducing energy costs by lowering the temperature. That would explain my daughter always freezing in her class, despite always wearing a long-sleeved shirt.
Take a look at the cuts that just one small school district have been forced to make.
- No out of state travel
- Reduced custodial staff 2 per building plus one ½ time grounds keeper
- Reduced one teaching position
- Discontinued the RHS Dance team
- Reduced the middle and high school athletic budgets by 50%
- Reduced building budgets by 50%
- Reduced classroom budgets by 50%
- Reduced guidance counseling and testing budgets by 50%
- Reduced library budgets by 50%
- Discontinued all water coolers in the district
- Reduced all field trips
- Postponed the purchase of new textbooks
- Reduced Board of Education expenses by 50%
- Postponed the purchase of a school bus
- Reduced overtime
- Discontinued Colt Singers at the middle school
- Reduced 1 assistant high school football coach @ RHS
- Reduced 1 assistant wrestling coach @ RHS
- Reduced 1 assistant track coach @ RHS
- Reduced 1 assistant volleyball coach @ RHS
- Reduced 2 assistant basketball (9th grade) coaches @ RHS
- Reduced 1 assistant track coach @ RMS
- Reduced 1 assistant wrestling coach @ RMS
- Reduced 1 assistant cross country coach @ RMS/RHS
- Reduced 1 assistant football coach @ RMS
- Reduced 1 bus route and 1 bus driver
- Discontinued summer school
- Reduced all extended contracts by a minimum of 50%
- Discontinued the RES/RMS Yearbook
- Discontinued the 8th grade play
- Reduced contract days for kitchen staff
- Reduced hours for all paraprofessionals
- Reduced 2 phone lines per building
- Reduced district cell phones
- Reduced custodial uniforms and entry door rug cleaning
- Reduced district office cleaning
- Reduced building, classroom, and activity budgets by an additional 10%
- Limited professional development to non-tenured staff
- Established energy saving measures including removing light bulbs, reducing the temperature in buildings, eliminating appliances, etc.
This is going on all over the state, and it's something I've been meaning to write about in our community. We're facing school closings here in Lawrence, and shuffling kids to different schools. The bottom line is that the state is running low on money so the state is simply refusing to give the schools the cash they need to operate has they have in the past. It's a serious, serious issue, that, in my opinion, is only going to be solved with tax hikes of some kind.
Does your school have an active PTA chapter that could cover some of the costs? Have they looked at other ways of raising money? As I said in my other reply our PTA covers many of the items listed like field trips, classroom supplies, and library books. Plus we as parents already pay a $95 textbook fee plus a technology fee for computers and a fee for using the library. We also have to send colored paper, markers, kleenex and other classroom supplies. At the middle and high school level you pay a fee for any class outside the core curriculum. I dont remember all the fees but I saw once where choir was an additional $40. Marching band was around $300. Art class fees can be near $1,000.
As for the sports in our area those are covered in a separate budget and are paid for by player fees, booster clubs, game admission prices, corporate sponsors, advertising, and concessions. Some football games draw over 5,000 fans plus radio/tv coverage and can net the school easily over $50,000 per game.