How budget cuts are affecting other schools

When I heard that LAUSD was shortening the school year, my first reaction was “yeah, no school!” But then I realized it’s less education for us.

Los Angeles Unified School District is short $640 million. To save money, they’re cutting five days from this school year and seven days from next school year. With fewer school days we have to do more on our own. My history teacher said that we’re going to have to take home our books for AP economics/government at the end of this school year so we can start reading over the summer. He said we can’t afford to be behind.

We have to do so much in so little time as it is. I’m taking AP U.S. history right now and we started reviewing for the AP exam before we finished the book. I didn’t really know about Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and my teacher told us we had to review it by ourselves. We’ve been going pretty fast, but we’re still behind. Next year we’ll be rushing even more. I think it’s bad because next year I’ll be even less prepared for the AP test.

Reading the book can get boring and you stop understanding because you’re not really paying attention. My history teacher makes history fun to learn. When he explains it or connects it to current events, I can relate to it and it sticks in my mind, like when he was talking about the Great Depression and related it to right now.

Even though I don’t agree with them cutting the school year, it’s better than cutting teachers. If they laid off teachers, that would make classes more packed. It’s going to be harder on us but we’ll have to take more initiative to work harder.

At my school, International Polytechnic High School (I-Poly), there are 500 students and 20 teachers. In April, our principal sent a letter home that said the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), which runs I-Poly, has a $45 million deficit that would require LACOE to layoff 7 I-Poly teachers. Our principal explained that to replace these teachers, LACOE is planning to bring in juvenile hall teachers who have more seniority. Seniority means teachers who have worked at LACOE for more years get to keep their jobs while less experienced teachers lose theirs.

The teachers I-Poly would be losing are the 12th grade government and economics teacher, the 11th grade U.S. history teacher, the 9th grade integrated social science teacher, the 9th grade English teacher, the advanced Spanish teacher, a P.E. teacher and our assistant principal.

There were so many angry tweets and Facebook status updates from students. Senior Hillary Vairin even e-mailed LACOE Superintendent Darline Robles. “…. both Mr. Strand (9th grade integrated social science teacher) and Mr. Navaroli (11th grade U.S. history teacher) play an extremely important role by being the administrators for Yearbook and ASB,” she wrote in her e-mail.

When I heard the news, I ranted to everyone that LACOE should just close our school. Our school is an alternative education high school that doesn’t have traditional classes or exams. Instead students must complete semester-long group projects and presentations in place of finals. What I’ve learned ranges from being able to work in a group to speaking in front of others and being able to teach a lesson for a class.
Bringing in seven juvenile hall teachers who aren’t used to the I-Poly way will only hurt the students. Two of the four freshman teachers are leaving and freshman year is when I-Poly’s presentation skills start. It builds toward senior year so that we’re able to successfully complete our two-hour presentation.

My small high school of 650 students is like a huge family. Students spend most of their day at school. We’re there until as late as seven at night for activities or just hanging out. Most of the teachers have been there for many years. But because of budget cuts, about seven of our “family members” are being forced to leave. Four are being laid off and three are being called back to their original school district.

Mr. Denman, my U.S. history teacher, has to leave. He is employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District but has been working at our school in the Long Beach Unified School District for about 12 years because he wanted a job close to his home. Although the Long Beach school district pays his salary and health benefits right now, LAUSD will pay his health benefits when he retires. But LAUSD does not want to pay his health benefits after he retires unless he teaches at an LAUSD school. So they are forcing him to come back.

When Mr. Denman told us he had to leave, we were all upset. He is not only the 11th grade U.S. history teacher but also the ASB advisor and sponsor of many clubs including Art Lit Club, which I am involved in. Every year he participates in the teacher’s routine at Dance Show, which the dance classes and the dance team puts on, even though he cannot dance. Another time, to fundraise for a club Mr. Denman agreed to be pied.

He is one of the most loved “family members.” Every time I use the microwave in his room at lunch, I see students eating their lunch and talking. Once when I was sad after my grandma died, Mr. Denman took the time to give me a hug and ask if he could help. It was nice to have a teacher I could talk to.

Current students and alumni tried to convince LAUSD to let Mr. Denman and two other teachers stay. They formed a Facebook group that now has 1,425 members and wrote letters to school board members. I e-mailed a letter to Chief Operating Officer Jim Morris. He basically replied saying that the district could not guarantee that Mr. Denman would stay. I felt happy he replied but I felt like he did not care.

We called two local newspapers to cover our story and both did articles. About 10 students and alumni also attended an LAUSD board meeting. An alumnus told me that during the open forum at the end of the meeting, all the California Academy of Math and Science students spoke. Two board members said they would try to do something but it seemed like they wanted to shut the students up more than help CAMS. In the end nothing worked. A week later the board members had finalized their decision. Mr. Denman and two other teachers have to go back to teach at LAUSD schools.

Although Mr. Denman has to leave CAMS, the good thing is he will not be jobless. He is going to work at Carson High. He promised to visit us but it won’t be the same as having him there every day. My school will not be complete without him.

A big concern at my school is the sports department’s budget. The department is losing about $70,000 for transportation and coaching stipends. This means that for the upcoming school year, sports team will be doing a lot more fundraising and the players will each have to pay $50 to play.

 “It’s frustrating for all of us because we have to scrape up money, but I’m pretty sure everyone can come up with $50,” said sophomore baseball player Adrian Perez. The budget cuts also affect coaches, since they will be paid less. Coaches had earned an average of $2800 a season. Baseball coach Rick Prieto said that a new coaching stipend hasn’t been determined by the department. The department has also discussed the possibility of cutting coaching positions, but nothing has been decided.