Let’s address a number of questions that have been posted through the “Ask Me” section of my website.
Questions from Brian, Lisa, Brigette and Ismael were on a similar theme. They are parents of children at some of our specialty schools. They felt their schools will be under-funded next school year. Here’s how Brian stated it:
…We are proud to be a part of such a wonderful program and hope to see the school continue to be successful. Unfortunately we continue to see parent, teacher and staff dedication and involvement rewarded with continued budget cuts.
To Brian and the others who wrote in this vein, I will answer that all schools are seeing their initial allocations affected by district financial challenges, which include rising costs of staff, transportation and utilities. It is still early in the budget process. We will not have a proposed district budget for more than a month. We are pooling the information we are getting from our school budget reviews and taking a second look at many things. I am reading all 400+ comments left on our budget survey. Many of the comments were from parents whose children attend language immersion or Montessori schools. It is early in the process; our team is still making decisions and that’s why it is important to include your input as a parent.
Ken wrote about his passion, the theater, and asked why it was being left out of the budget.
Ken, schools that feature theater in their instruction still have the option of funding it in their school budgets. We wonder if Ken was referring to our recent budget survey, which asked parents to rank certain programs in order of preference. While theater was not in that listing, we assure you that its omission from the list does not mean it will be cut. I am aware of NO such plan.
The following question is from Wanda, who asked what we do with materials like textbooks that are not longer incorporated into the curriculum.
The district collects outdated textbooks from the schools. We make the books available to potential buyers. If we have outdated materials for which we cannot find a buyer, we consider recycling. But if we are able to find buyers, the money we earn back is channeled to the district for replacement materials.
Thanks to all who wrote. More responses to “Ask Me” questions soon.
