Not much to tell. The busing is safe. There’s another meeting tonight during which the decision whether the budget needs to be cut at all, and if so how much, will be made, then they’ll decide where to make the cuts (cuz you just know there will be cuts.) At Monday’s meeting what I said in my previous post was repeated by a few people- that the school budgets get voted down simply because that’s the only tax we have a say on. The system is FUBAR my friends.
Sadly they were taking a hard look at extracurriculars. When we moved here there were no extracurriculars. No band, no clubs, no community service. Now there are a bunch yet they still routinely have to turn away kids because there’s no space for them.
I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know if there even is an answer at the local level, since the problem goes so much deeper- the issue is local control versus fair school funding, and the arguments are strongly felt on both sides. The larger issue is what state funding there is going to a small number of districts (Newark, Jersey City) who let their systems get so messed up they needed rescue. Years later they’re still funded by the state, while we worry about whether our little band program (for 70 kids!) will survive budget cuts.
So, enough ranting. I’ll make my next post fluffy.
I still have one child in Catholic grade school - my son. (My daughter goes to the public high school.) My son’s school has little money for a lot of things, but they do have band and vollyeball and basketball, etc. How do they run these programs? Volunteers. Lots and lots of volunteering. Or, in the case of band, the parents pay individually for their child to be instructed. Sports - we put a $50 deposit on his basketball uniform. If the uniform is kept in good shape, we get our $50 check back. (Which we did last week.) I don’t think the public schools have much of a base for volunteering…everybody has to be paid. There really is a difference in the amount of volunteering once a child gets to the high school age. No one wants to do it. (Which I can understand. People are too busy.) But I think it makes HUGE difference moneywise. Not for each thing, but when you put them all together, it all adds up. We moved last August, and my daughter’s old high school had students pay if they wanted to join athletics. It wasn’t a lot. For each sport of extra-curricular activity that the child wanted to join, they had to pay $5. That was for the entire year. I thought it was a good idea. $5 or even $15 is not a lot to pay for a whole year for an individual. When you add up the numbers of kids that join these activities, that is a nice chunk of change to help out the school with these activities. Sure, it won’t “cure” anything, but it helps. Another thing people don’t realize is how much insurance costs for schools. In these days of everybody suing for every little thing, they really have to cover their butts. I know that I never really thought about it until my daughter took driver’s education at school. (public school) I think I paid between $250 - $300 for that at the beginning of the year when she registered. The clerk in the office mentioned that the price had really gone up because the prices of insurance coverage had risen so dramatically. Anyway, it’s just stuff to think about.
MJ- you’re so right about the private vs public school thing as far as money and volunteering. I went to Catholic school and every thing that happened outside the classroom (and a lot inside) was through volunteers and donations or fees. But it’s a different mindset, I think. People who choose private school make a very deliberate decision, where a lot (certainly not all by far!) of public school parents don’t think twice about school, other than making sure their kids go (and some don’t even do that.) I volunteer in my son’s class one day a week and people think it’s strange. I can’t tell you how many people have suggested that I apply to be paid as a teaching assistant since I’m there anyway. The money thing is more complicated, I think. There’s definitely the mindset that public schools should offer extra-curriculars for “free.” In the past they’ve been pay as you go and they didn’t fill up- once they were included in the school budget they had to start turning kids away.
Anyway, I just found out they didn’t cut anything out- the budget was passed by the town committee intact, which I’m happy about. I guess we’ll find out in November whether that bothers enough people to vote them out of office!