Teaching Cuts

Well, the recession has hit my little school. We, that being the minions who teach, know that our school board is anxious to reduce expenditures and we also know that salaries are the most cost assuming expenditure. Sooo, at a faculty meeting today our principal announced that next year there will be one full time teacher and two paraprofessionals (teacher's aides) fewer and the arts, library, and phys ed teachers will each lose a day per week. My math program will be reduced although my full-time status remains intact. I will continue to teach math but I don't know how many days per week and what other responsibilities I will assume.

I don't fault the school board. Well, yes I do but only a little. Our school board is very supportive but they are caught between a rock and a hard place. Our student enrollment has declined but our expenditures have continued to rise so now our cost per student is above the state limit and the state can levy a pretty steep penalty. The sad part is that our little school is very successful at meeting, no exceeding, the needs of our students mainly because our class sizes are small, our arts program is richly stimulating, our librarian is very tech savvy, we have support services in reading and math, and the school is considered the center of the community. And so it is crushing to know that student programs will suffer and three adults will be without income.

The part that really stinks though is that regardless of how hard we work, how much training we get, how much of our personal income we spend to enhance our instructional units, we still end up being victims of the budget process. I'm thankful I still have a job but I left school after the meeting and drove to a friend's house where I sipped a glass of sherry while we visited. Before I departed I stood outside a few minutes and gazed up into the star-studded night sky. I felt so very, very insignificant.