Budget Cuts

Budget Cuts

By: Ericka Saracho

The staggering economic crisis across the nation has had profound effects for California education. So far Lincoln has had its share of losses and sacrifices.

Some of these effects were first noticeable last summer when many students were prevented from taking classes to get ahead because a lot of summer classes were not available. The same is true now for the Wilson-Lincoln Adult School; the teachers will now cut students that are absent three days consecutively because there are many kids on a waiting list for the limited space for after-school classes.

Lincoln is far from immunity when it comes to job losses. Four secretaries worked their last Friday here at Abraham Lincoln on October 30. And during the summer the custodial staff was decreased from eight to four. Sometimes a staff member is let go even if their position has not been cut, as is the case for some teachers that have been fired to be replaced by teachers from other schools who have more seniority. (Seniority is the amount of years that a teacher has been teaching over all.)

“We’re a little lucky,” though, says Mr. Wong, a social science teacher here at Lincoln. Mr. Wong is referring to the amount of money that the school receives from the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA), a program for schools that perform poorly. The funds that Lincoln got have been used this year for more counselors.

The large amounts of retirees last year can also be traced back to the economic crisis. As most people know, a teacher’s pay increases as their seniority increases; therefore, the district gave a couple of nudges to motivate those teachers close to retirement to do so last June. Those incentives included one time offers of a little extra cash. Like one teacher noted “the district can pay almost two new teachers with my payroll.” By spending a little more on retiring teachers now, the district is saving quite a lot of money in the long run. Even though this is helping the monetary aspects of the school, how is this loss of experience affecting Lincoln?

The teachers and students are going to have to pick up the pieces and learn how to cope with the transitions. Although Mr. Wadsworth still oversees the cheerleaders and Mr. Shapiro also works with the softball teams, their presence is sorely missed on campus during school hours.

And speaking of teams, the separate basketball teams for freshmen and sophomore have been combined due to the lack of money that is available to pay for the buses when the sport team goes to games. Not only will this prevent many boys from participating in an awesome sport, but they are essentially missing out on a chance to grow leadership and basketball skills that are always needed when they are old enough to play on the Lincoln’s Junior Varsity and Varsity basketball teams. Money for buses is also falling short for academic field trips.

The fate the annual Mammoth trip in June is still uncertain. There has been a massive loss in Magnet because, according to our coordinator, Mr. Bustillo, the annual budget that we receive for being a Magnet school has been depleted by 66%. And on top of that, the money that Magnet gets for each gifted student has dropped from $50 last year to $25 this year. Right now, we are trying to decide how to cope with these staggering losses and determine if we could somehow pull it together so we can still go on our Mammoth field trip. Efforts include several teachers asking for grants from outside programs and resources.

There are a number of ways to blunt the effects of such a harsh economic downturn. Look forward to a couple of ways you can contribute in the next newsletter.

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Posted in Current Topics, Parents, Staff, Students