Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you anticipating cuts from the state budgets? I thought most schools were funded by local property taxes which shouldn't change much in our DC area. Housing prices won't tank here.

I'm not worried about budget cuts at all.

Well you should be because they are definitively happening. Schools rely only state and local taxes for money. Both have fallen tremendously. My county will not get $73 million that had previously been allocated due to the loss of tax revenue during this time. And since Q3 is projected to be a 35% retraction and who knows bad it’ll get into Q4 and 2021, they will be steeper cuts next year. You should look at school board docs as they are already creating amended budgets with cuts implemented.

Seriously. How can anyone not think there will be budget cuts?

You can realize there will be budget cuts without worrying about them.

If you read the entire comment that is it what they were saying. They were saying because local housing costs haven’t changed they don’t think our schools are facing cuts at all. That’s why they aren’t worried. They don’t realize they’ve already happened.

Anonymous wrote:Since schools will have much smaller budgets, this coming school year, what do you predict they will cut back on first. Obviously it’s quite unlikely that employees will receive a cost of living raise. But outside of that, what cutbacks do you think will happen?

ALL the money saved on wars should to into Education.[b]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things like languages in lower grades, buses for sports, in addition to some sports themselves.

A lot depends on whether and how long kids will physically be in the schools.

Buses for sports? We do not have those in our MCPS MS or our HS. Parents (and 11th and 12th graders with driver's licenses and cars) have to drive the athletes.

They have them here in our pwcs schools.

We have them for MCPS...maybe the size of the team matters?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you anticipating cuts from the state budgets? I thought most schools were funded by local property taxes which shouldn't change much in our DC area. Housing prices won't tank here.

I'm not worried about budget cuts at all.

Well you should be because they are definitively happening. Schools rely only state and local taxes for money. Both have fallen tremendously. My county will not get $73 million that had previously been allocated due to the loss of tax revenue during this time. And since Q3 is projected to be a 35% retraction and who knows bad it’ll get into Q4 and 2021, they will be steeper cuts next year. You should look at school board docs as they are already creating amended budgets with cuts implemented.

Seriously. How can anyone not think there will be budget cuts?

You can realize there will be budget cuts without worrying about them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you anticipating cuts from the state budgets? I thought most schools were funded by local property taxes which shouldn't change much in our DC area. Housing prices won't tank here.

I'm not worried about budget cuts at all.

Well you should be because they are definitively happening. Schools rely only state and local taxes for money. Both have fallen tremendously. My county will not get $73 million that had previously been allocated due to the loss of tax revenue during this time. And since Q3 is projected to be a 35% retraction and who knows bad it’ll get into Q4 and 2021, they will be steeper cuts next year. You should look at school board docs as they are already creating amended budgets with cuts implemented.

Seriously. How can anyone not think there will be budget cuts?

Anonymous wrote:Are you anticipating cuts from the state budgets? I thought most schools were funded by local property taxes which shouldn't change much in our DC area. Housing prices won't tank here.

I'm not worried about budget cuts at all.

Well you should be because they are definitively happening. Schools rely only state and local taxes for money. Both have fallen tremendously. My county will not get $73 million that had previously been allocated due to the loss of tax revenue during this time. And since Q3 is projected to be a 35% retraction and who knows bad it’ll get into Q4 and 2021, they will be steeper cuts next year. You should look at school board docs as they are already creating amended budgets with cuts implemented.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents can pay for sports if they want to opt their kids into them. If there isn’t enough demand, then it doesn’t happen. There you go! Capitalism.

And support staff can get jobs elsewhere. Not sure what your point is.

...yeah they should. The schools aren’t going to be able to pay coaches or pay teachers per session to run sports. The primary function of school is education, not developing athletes. You’re free to do those activities after school and on weekends.

I think sports will be cut due to proximity concerns more than budget issues. Overall the cuts will be pretty minimal. No steps, no pay raise. Slightly larger classes, teachers pay more into health insurance, cuts to transportation reimbursement. Bigger/continued cuts next year

Yes, proximity issues. And liability issues. Sports are the main reason many high school kids get passing grades in high school. But this is a pandemic and I'm telling you, there isn't going to be any sports until there's a vaccine. Not on school property using school staff or equipment. No school is going to be willing to take that risk. Not even if they have to open for the regular school day. Fwiw, the PE teacher in my school is being told that she should start gathering ideas of how to teach PE without ANY equipment at all (because it can't be washed between kids using it).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all our TA's are going to lose their jobs. And the coaches. And the librarians. And a bunch of people at central office. And some of the front office secretaries. I don't think any of the specials teachers will survive or if they do, it'll be 10% of normal staffing. I also think class sizes are going to increase and many young teachers are going to lose their jobs. I suspect that if not this fall, then next, school districts will lose 50% of their funding.
If people think things are bad now.....

You say many young teachers will lose jobs... why the younger ones? my thought would be the older teachers because they cost ore, are more at risk for illness, and traditionally are less apt to change and using technology

Why the younger ones? Because, at least in my state, people keep their job based on ratings first, within their certification, and seniority second. Younger teachers are much more likely to have significant trouble with classroom management and in producing results. Therefore, their ratings are likely to be lower. When cuts have to happen, the teachers with the lowest ratings get let go first within their certification area. So, for example, if there are 10 general education teachers, and 2 have ESL certifications, those teachers will likely stay even if their rating is low, because the district needs teachers with that certification. Then, the other 8, assuming no one has a sped certificate or bilingual or something, then the lowest rated teachers would be let go. It's possible in my state that this could be an older teacher, but not likely. A few years ago, one veteran teacher with 30 years in did get let go, but that was a total outlier. You can't let teachers go because "they cost more". It doesn't work like that in education. And letting someone go for risk of illness would get the district sued to kingdom come, because that's illegal. Yes, some older teachers do struggle with tech. True. But that isn't going to be a factor because we have contractual protections. And, this virus is going to last, what, maybe another 18 months?

Now, a charter or a private school has more freedom to fire people at will. Some folks like that and choose those schools for their kids. I have seen those new teacher factories in action as a former charter school teacher myself and I'd never let my kid attend one. My experience has taught me that experience is vital. Other folks are free to do otherwise, of course, no judgement from me.

Last in, first out. That’s how a reduction in force works in many districts.

Anonymous wrote:I think all our TA's are going to lose their jobs. And the coaches. And the librarians. And a bunch of people at central office. And some of the front office secretaries. I don't think any of the specials teachers will survive or if they do, it'll be 10% of normal staffing. I also think class sizes are going to increase and many young teachers are going to lose their jobs. I suspect that if not this fall, then next, school districts will lose 50% of their funding.
If people think things are bad now.....

You say many young teachers will lose jobs... why the younger ones? my thought would be the older teachers because they cost ore, are more at risk for illness, and traditionally are less apt to change and using technology

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of money gets spend on “extras” throughout the year, such as shirts for staff, lunch for staff for PD and holidays, etc. I think all of that will be cut out.

*spent

At my school all of that is paid for from PTA donations and I’m at a very low income school

The only things I know of my PTA doing are during teacher appreciation week. I wonder if they’ll even do anything this week. Anyway, all that other stuff comes out of the school’s budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents can pay for sports if they want to opt their kids into them. If there isn’t enough demand, then it doesn’t happen. There you go! Capitalism.

And support staff can get jobs elsewhere. Not sure what your point is.

...yeah they should. The schools aren’t going to be able to pay coaches or pay teachers per session to run sports. The primary function of school is education, not developing athletes. You’re free to do those activities after school and on weekends.

I think sports will be cut due to proximity concerns more than budget issues. Overall the cuts will be pretty minimal. No steps, no pay raise. Slightly larger classes, teachers pay more into health insurance, cuts to transportation reimbursement. Bigger/continued cuts next year

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of money gets spend on “extras” throughout the year, such as shirts for staff, lunch for staff for PD and holidays, etc. I think all of that will be cut out.

*spent

At my school all of that is paid for from PTA donations and I’m at a very low income school

The Fresh Air Fund, Global Sports Foundation, Project Fit America, Right to Play, and Kids in the Game are all charities you can donate to if you are worried about underprivileged kids having access to sports programming.

Schools are operating under an austerity budget next year. If you want your child's school to have sports teams then you should put together a fundraiser with the other parents. The money from the government is not there. I'm sorry that kids are bored, but everyone is facing these issues right now. Such is life. Learning to entertain yourself is a valuable lesson.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents can pay for sports if they want to opt their kids into them. If there isn’t enough demand, then it doesn’t happen. There you go! Capitalism.

And support staff can get jobs elsewhere. Not sure what your point is.

...yeah they should. The schools aren’t going to be able to pay coaches or pay teachers per session to run sports. The primary function of school is education, not developing athletes. You’re free to do those activities after school and on weekends.

There is a lot of value to sports in schools. They motivate many kids, especially at risk kids, to actually put effort into school so that they are eligible to participate on sports teams. Those at risk kids rarely can afford the club model you propose, financially or logistically. Sports are good for school spirit. Kids will need more than drudgery when schools reopen, and cutting sports across the board won’t be the easy breezy solution that you propose.