Gary Root

Editor

With the poor national and state economies and recent mandatory budget cuts, schools and education have been targeted first. Throughout the state schools have faced severe budget cuts and have needed to take drastic measures to continue to provide quality educational opportunities for students.

At Weimar Hills School, several important and beneficial classes have been cut and valued teachers are being laid off.

WHS principal Mr. Steve Schaumleffel replied about their situation, “We have worked long and hard to build the program at Weimar and it is very discouraging to see it all going away like this. We are rapidly getting to a point of being able to provide only the basic reading, writing, and arithmetic - middle school should be so much more!”

All elective classes including art, music/music production, and several others have been removed to make up for the budget deficit. The library, counseling services, and band are several other programs that will be reduced or removed due to the reduced budget. Finally, an expected five teachers will be laid off.

Mrs. Suzanne Scotten, an 8th grade WHS English teacher, is one of the five teachers that are being laid off at the end of this year. About the recent elective cuts and teacher lay offs, Mrs. Scotten commented, “We are saddened to have to eliminate our amazing elective programs. Electives offer students the chance to experience the arts and express their knowledge in a variety of ways.”

According to Mr. Rick Spears, principal of Colfax High School, the recent budget cuts have severely impactedmany other schools including CHS. Mr. Spears stated if all of the elective classes were cut at CHS, “students would be angry, and it would hurt their education. Elective programs complete a well rounded education and many courses keep students excited about coming to school.” Electives are part of the reason that students enjoy being a part of school, and the removal of them negatively affects their academic motivation.

With the current WHS situation, Mr. Schaumleffel also acknowledged, “We will continue to try and provide the best, most comprehensive program possible. We are currently trying to find alternatives to offer some of the things scheduled to be cut.”

Fully understanding the impacts of the cuts to electives, Weimar is hoping to provide a secondary solution to the loss of these programs which will be decided at a later time. Mrs. Scotten stated, “Individual teachers will do their best to add creative projects into their curriculum to try and fill this huge loss.” This in turn will hopefully help students and staff members recover from this unfortunate situation.

The cuts of elective classes and the loss of teachers is a result of the lack of funds given to schools by the state. However, California is currently spending more money on the quality of prisons than higher education.

Ten percent of California’s general state funds are given to prisons while only seven percent are devoted to higher education. Mrs. Scotten commented that it is unreasonable that, “in California, we spend more money on prisons than schools. It seems to me if we invested in education we would have a better chance to cultivate critically thinking young adults that could help bring our country back to prosperity.”

Mrs. Scotten later replied, “Education is the most effective way to prevent crime, poverty and a numberof other ills.” To ensure proper education and a foundation for a sustainable society, prisons should not be receiving more money than given to schoolswhich provide education.

At WHS, students and staff canwitness this firsthand as the cuts have taken serious effects on elective classes and have made providing a well roundededucation very difficult.

Hoping to cope with the substantial budget cuts, Weimar has proposed several ways to conserve school funds.

In the future, Weimar is planning on increasing the size of certain classes and only spending money on necessary materials. Overall, the combination of these necessary cuts will hopefully help Weimar Hills School recover from this economic situation.