Thanks to our struggling economy and its never-ending money problems, the Illinois education system can’t seem to catch a break. Despite tireless efforts of passing referendums, fundraising and cutting salary raises, Kaneland’s proposed budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year came to a whopping $4 million.
Now, we got lucky. Fortunately, many of the things that were proposed didn’t actually get cut, our wonderful teachers agreed to withhold a salary raise to save the programs, employees and extra-curricular activities that were on that list. We wish that was that nothing would have to be cut next year, too.
But unfortunately, not much can be done anymore to withhold the cost reductions. We were reminded of this at the Jan 24 board meeting, where the new budget cuts were proposed for the 2011-12 school year.
Although less than last year, the cost reduction goal is still a large number: $1 million.
The board explained that all of the work will be done through a cost center process, which involves two steps. First, each cost center will work with District Administration to develop a list of potential cost reductions with their initial budget. Once the initial list has been identified, the entire administrative team will review the list and analyze the impact of each cost reduction.
As they’ve said before, administration will be proposing cuts of extra-curricular activities first, and anything that has to do with core classes last. Although the composite cost reduction goal is one million dollars, there is a positive aspect of the plan: the high school will only have to cut about 24 percent of that number, or about $238,000. The middle school, elementary schools and district will be dividing up the rest of the 76 percent between themselves.
It’s hard to be excited knowing the first things to go might be our sports teams, electives or clubs. Those are the fragments of high school we take part in because we actually want to, not because we’re forced to.
But if there’s one cliche that fits this situation perfectly, it’s that money doesn’t buy happiness. Of course, it can be said that money can pay for the sports, classes and clubs, which in turn will buy everyone happiness: but that’s not really the point we’re trying to make.
There will always be set backs, but that doesn’t mean that we should let them affect our experience. We should refuse to let budget cuts to be the reason we look back on high school 10 years later in a negative way.
Money can’t buy friends, laughter or memories. It can’t buy time, love or moments that take our breath away. This is the time of our lives we’re supposed to be carefree—worrying about money shouldn’t be on our agenda. So let’s take it off of it.
The lack of money really can be quite unnerving sometimes who would turn down a swimming pool, or at the least, ceilings that don’t constantly leak? But it shouldn’t hinder our ability to have fun or do things we enjoy doing. And for all we know, maybe the lack of funds can provide new things to do. A chance to get creative and a chance to bond with people we usually wouldn’t bond with. In fact, this whole problem really is pulling us together as a school, even as a district.
Everyone’s working together to come up with an affective plan, even community members attend board meetings to offer suggestions. High school is preparing us for college, for the real world. And dealing with negative situations in a positive way is a huge part of succeeding in the real world. We don’t need all of these things to make friends or memories for that matter. And aren’t they what high school’s really about?