offTopic - School Cuts and Maybe You Can Help!

[scottcooks]

Lovers of the arts, or of education - read on...

Our school district is in a fantastic community that has good industries, neighbors and home to big companies like Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Nintendo, Expedia and T-Mobile. But all these industries and our state budget is in bad recession - currently we fund at 38th out of 50 states in the nation... Unfortunately, our school district is looking to cut. I'm a career music teacher (and Pampered Chef!) looking down the barrel at potential loss of
-elementary beginning band
-elementary beginning strings
-elementary art
-elementary PE
-changing the middle school offering of currently 7 periods where both music and languages and PE and art thrive, to only having 6 periods - suddenly we have to compete for kids, staff, funding.
-cutting staff in various levels
-cutting HS athletics.

If you'd like to help, take the survey as a "community" member...

The survey closes at midnight PT on March 25th. Please take the time to fill it out. You will find the survey and directions on the second section of the District’s home page Home : Bellevue School District (look for budget 2010-2011)

I'll keep you posted. Cuts are announced mid-April; the board meeting on April 13 is going to be packed!

 

[lockhartkitchen]

Wow Scott! This survey really opened my eyes. I am a teacher as well. The first time through the survey, I only had 24 points, and I needed 60 for it to count. These were my thinking: More and more kids drop out of school because the arts are taken away. Also sports keep a lot of these kids in school as well. Though an increase in sports fees would eliminate a large amount of the budget, it also would eliminate a lot of middle class students from participating. It was a tough decision to fill this out. I always think it should start from the top with cuts. As undesirable as it is, some teachers will lose jobs, since this is where the largest in the budget comes from. I do believe Music, PE, need to stay in place!! Not only are these very important, but because of federal mandates, unqualified teachers would be teaching these if YOU and others were not there. Our district cut librarians in 1/2 and uses librarian assistants and it works okay.

 

[lockhartkitchen]

I kept you on my survey

 

[scottcooks]

It's pretty wild - the elementary FTE and 6 period day are all subject to contract issues - so I think it's some posturing for next year's negotiations.

 

[lockhartkitchen]

We're negotiating for a contract now. Realistically, our union is going to have to settle on no raises for teachers. There just isn't the money. It's going to be a hit on the paycheck. We will all see Medicaid taxes go way up starting next paycheck as it is.