By OLIVIA MURPHY – Public Relations Manager
Due to Clarke County School District budget cuts for the 2012-13 school year, students in all schools will experience the most important cut: teachers.
In today’s education system, when teachers, faculty and staff hear the phrase “budget cuts,” it sends a shiver down their spines.
Not only does the phrase leave staff members in fear of losing their jobs, but it also leaves the students with the fear of losing their beloved teachers. It is a sad sight to witness.
As a senior and as one of the 1,500 students at Clarke Central High School, we have had experience with the different effects that budget cuts have had on our school, including transitioning from smaller class sizes to larger class sizes; something that we all had to adjust to eventually.
For the 2011-12 school year alone, according to the Clarke County School District website, the tentative budget was set to $121,436,291. However, for the 2012-13 school year, the tentative budget has been adjusted to $109,842,740.
That means across the board, the school district has set the budget for next year approximately $12 million lower than last year’s allowance of funds. To meet this new budget, 115 CCSD teachers, paraprofessionals and staff members will lose their jobs next year. Out of those 115 employees, approximately 40 of CCHS and Cedar Shoals High School staff members will not return.
I know that, as a student, the school district spending more or less on an individual institution within the district is not my concern.
But as a student in the CCSD since 2005, I can say with confidence that students who have built strong teacher-student relationships with their teachers will feel the harshest cuts. When the district loses those teachers, who will have to leave the career that they had for years in order to meet the standards of the new budget, the student will also feel pain.
Unfortunately, teachers and staff who have dedicated anywhere from one to even 20 years in the positions they love at the 22 different schools in the CCSD will have to again look for a career.
I am no teacher. I am no administrator. But for me, as a student, hearing teachers with whom I have built strong relationships during my four years at CCHS inform their students that they will not be returning is the last thing that I want to hear.
At this exciting time of the year, before we walk the stage during Commencement ceremonies at the University of Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum, teachers should be feeling proud for dedicating their careers to assist students in remaining in good standing for successful futures.
Perhaps this is an administrative decision that must be made to correct the CCSD finance, but money cannot replace the special memories that teachers have shared with their students nor can it make us forget the devotion that they put forth for their careers.
