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Schools ‘disappointed’ by cuts
Superintendents say systems will have to tap into reserves
Published Monday, July 27, 2009
Local school superintendents said they were “disappointed” by news of additional cuts in the state’s education budget.
Friday, Gov. Bob Riley announced the state’s education budget would be cut another 2 percent and move up to 11 percent proration for the remainder of the budget year, which ends Sept. 30. He also released the final $116 million from the state’s Rainy Day Trust Fund.
The change was necessary because of a considerable drop in sales tax revenues. The adjusted budget for this year is $5.7 billion, compared to $6.7 billion in the 2007-08 budget year. The 2009-10 budget is $6.3 billion.
“I wasn’t surprised by the news,” Opp Superintendent Michael Smithart said. “But we are truly frustrated and disappointed. The timing of these cuts is especially damaging, because the additional 2 percent is taken from our final three state appropriations, which means an additional $161,000.”
Smithart said Opp City Schools has had to deal with cumulative cuts of almost $900,000 for the 2008-09 budget year.
Andalusia Superintendent Dr. Beverly McAnulty said the city school system will need to dip into its reserves to make up for the cuts at the state level.
“We have been expecting this,” she said. “It’s hard because all additional cuts will have to be absorbed in the first two months of the school year. Usually, this time of the year, there are small unspent balances that can help, but that is not the case this year.
“We’ve already tapped into our reserves and will have to go a little deeper.”
McAnulty said the additional proration translates to a 15 percent decrease in its state allocations for the last two months of this year.
Smithart said the OCS will also have to dip into its operative reserve, but that is not a viable long-term solution to the problem.
“It’s nice to have reserves and that’s what they’re for, but we can only prop ourselves up for so long,” he said. “Right now, there is no revenue source to replenish the reserves once they are depleted, and it appears we will begin the next fiscal year with at least 6 percent proration.”
Smithart said Opp City Schools allocates $200 for each teacher for instructional supplies, and that money will still be allocated despite proration.
“I don’t forsee us cutting that,” he said. “Our teachers need basic supplies and that is about all they will get with $200. We will handle the shortfall. We will continue to cut where we can and we will squeeze every penny we can.”
McAnulty and Smithart both said proration is likely in the 2009-10 education budget as well.
“At some point, the state and our city will have to address a long-rang solution to the periodic proration, if we truly believe our future is in our children,” she said. “In the meantime, our dedicated educators will do everything to provide the best instruction for our children.”
Covington County Superintendent Terry Holley could not be reached for comment.
Comments
Posted by lulubell (anonymous) on July 28, 2009 at 1:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well here goes more money having to be spent by the parents for supplies that they already can not afford to spend because the utilities went up this past month and they are already struggling to make ends meet. You all do know that what you buy for your child for the classroom does become community property that is why in January you are ask to buy more school supplies this being right after the Christmas holidays who can afford to spend more money!
Posted by Shamrock (anonymous) on July 28, 2009 at 2:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
school supplies "become community property."
And so do your children.
You relinquish control of your children when they enter the government school system.
Has the new Handbook of Rules been changed as promised?
Do you know who the liberal, progressive teachers are?
Do you know that it is likely all students will be the first to be vaccinated with the untested live swine flu (NINI) vaccine this fall, and could be mandatory?
Do you really know what your children are being taught other than Math and P.E.?
When you find out, you may want to consider Homeschooling.
Posted by justice (anonymous) on July 28, 2009 at 3:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
you are right shamrock ,does andy city school have the after school program?they teach kids how to speach spanish is not right learn american and let imigrants learn american if they won't to live here.
Posted by sadshoper (anonymous) on July 28, 2009 at 4:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
O.M.G!!!!!!! Justice, it's English. The English Language, not the American Language.
Posted by WAtidefan (anonymous) on July 28, 2009 at 5:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with much of what Shamrock writes. I do think parents should provide basic supplies (paper, pens, pencils, crayons, etc.) for their own children. But, materials should not become community property. My experience is that students tend to take better care of their own materials. If materials are "free" they don't care. BTW, I also feel the same way about textbooks. I know we will never go back to the days of parents purchasing books, but I am convinced that if a kids defaces a book and can't sell it the next year, mom and dad will not be happy. As it stands now, kids have the attitude "if it isn't mine, why should I take care of it"? Shamrock is right about knowing who the liberal teachers are. I have known a few liberal educators who did not force their left leaning beliefs on kids. It is a very, very small number. There are Christian/conservative teachers in public schools. I am proud to be one of them. Find out who they are and support them. I fully support homeschooling as well as Christian schools. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because you live a in small Southern town that your kids won't be exposed to liberal nonsense.
Posted by countyconscience (anonymous) on July 28, 2009 at 7:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I challenge WAtidefan to name the liberal teachers who are teaching liberal nonsense in our community. If Shamrock knows of"liberal, progressive teachers in our local schools - then name - or quit casting such slurs against our school systems.
PS. War Eagle!!!!
Posted by WAtidefan (anonymous) on July 29, 2009 at 12:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My intent was not to slur Andalusia schools specifically. Every single employee of your community schools may be as good as gold and as right as rain. But, they may not be. Is it not prudent to err on the side of caution? Are you saying that parents don't need to be involved with the school system?
My intent was to sound a clarion call to parents regardless of where they live. Not all readers/contributors here are living in small town USA.
All parents, including those in Andalusia, should be very familiar with the curriculum in detail. Parents should meet with teachers, shadow their children and visit classrooms frequently with some of those visits to be unscheduled. Not having time, just too busy, I can't get off work, my kids are already more educated than I am are not reasons to avoid what I see as good parenting. Have you ever considered how much time students spend over the course of a year with teachers? Where else do kids go for as much time without some parental involvement? In case you think a small town can't have nutty teachers, research the incident at a Marianna FL middle school this past school year during the presidential election.
This may be hard to believe, but I have met parents for the first time at the end of a school year and they didn't know my name or what I taught. How sad for these kids. How sad it is for all children with parents who choose to not be informed about what they are being taught.
Posted by Shamrock (anonymous) on July 29, 2009 at 5:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you WAtidefan for your excellent recommendations for parents.
The majority of teachers here are more than willing to answer questions we may have on certain issues. They are handicapped when it comes to the NEA modernist curriculum.
Even if they felt the need for prayer in their classroom, big brother is watching. Or for a Christian point of view on Creationism vs Evolution, or traditional History vs revised History, or the compatiblity of God and Science, big brother is watching.
These are our children, thirsty for true knowledge, and they should have every right to it. But in our government schools, the NEA deals out the cards and the teachers have to use those cards dealt to them. In this game, you can't discard.
Who suffers? The children of course.
It is the NEA that worries us, and their agenda for our children. Teachers can be on the hot spot if they refuse, under conscience, to teach or slant certain curriculum that they believe is wrong. It is very unfair to these dedicated teachers.
Yes, Countyconsience: in the course of WHO ARE THE REAL RACISTS, iamabookworm concided to the fact that she was a teacher. You yourself may be one, as well as Estrogen.
What schools? What grades? What subjects? I don't know.
But they are here.
Wouldn't it be nice for parents to know who they are? I think so!
Posted by iamabookworm (anonymous) on July 29, 2009 at 8:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Look, "listening" to this garbage has been morbidly fun but I feel the need to clarify, as I can tell from reading your posts Shamrock, you hear what you want to hear. I am assuming that the word that you were aiming for was "concede" and I never did any such thing. YOU jumped to your own conclusions about my occupation without any evidence to support your theory. Sort of like the way you have jumped to conclusions about many other things without any facts to support your claims. You really should try to at least have a little bit of knowledge about something before you try to become the town crier. Ever heard of Chicken Little??? ROFLMAO
Posted by countyconscience (anonymous) on July 29, 2009 at 9:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Shamrock is a real sham who repeats the same old tired rightwing talking points. This kind of political poppycock is not based on fact but on drivel passed around the internet and spouted on Fox News. I made an earlier challenge to name the liberal/progressive teachers in our schools that has gone unanswered.
All this yampering about the NEA is another good example of what I am talking about. Shamrock likes accuse but never will offer anything to prove the allegation. Where has the curricculm in our local schools been changed as a result of anything produced by the NEA?
The Bible is not a scientific textbook and I don't remember anything in Darwin's Origin of the Species that had anything to do with the Christian faith. Trying to mix them together is a silly exercise. I do not want religion taught in public schools by teachers that are not trained to do so and I want science teachers left alone to teach what they are qualified to teach.
Posted by iamabookworm (anonymous) on July 29, 2009 at 10:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
CC: Bravo!!!
Posted by LoyalAmerican (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 8:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Listing names of teachers, whether liberal or conservative, in this public forum, could prove to be a legal nightmare. What has changed in every school district across America is the content of textbooks. Consequently this has impacted what is taught in the classroom. Textbooks have developed a slant toward liberalism and many contain blatant lies. Example, Houghton Mifflin, "Across the Centuries" defines jihad as an "inner struggle" to "do ones best to resist temptation and overcome evil." That definition sounds as though it describes a sweet person trying their best to be a good, decent human being. However, jihad means "holy war waged by Muslims against infidels." The "infidels" would be you and me! All textbooks have been rewritten to define and teach that the Crusades were Christian massacres of Muslims and Jews. If you want your toes to curl, get a copy of Prentice Hall's textbook, 'World History" and you will be shocked! Personally I have been purchasing old textbooks for some time, in an effort to preserve the facts. The new "facts" in many of today's textbooks, in no way resemble facts in textbooks published 50 years ago. The real changes began in the 1970's. Has the NEA hand been in these changes? I do not deny the admirable qualifications a teacher has that enables them to teach. What I do take issue with is the subject matter they are required to teach. I will not micro manage any teacher. However, I will be glancing over their shoulder to ensure what is being taught is factually correct. If students are lectured on Darwin's therory in science class, those same students have the right to hear the opposing view, which is Creationism. This simply allows the student to see all sides. After all, we do want children with critcal thinking skills!
Posted by ladybugg (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 1:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You guys, really, do you think its just the classroom our children are learning liberal nonsense? It is everywhere. Are you going to keep your children in a bubble, or teach them the difference between the absence of God and the presence of God? I grew up in a school where there were still liberal teachers who taught Darwinism as more than just a theory and we students got up and left the classroom. It was the absence of God in our teachers mind, it's not just today but we were taught by our parents what to believe as the truth, not a history book. That was a bad grade I was proud to receive. Read a history book from 1880's and read one from 1980's they are VERY different, yet the history still happened. Don't knock teachers who just have to go by the curriculum. Notice the way they live outside the classroom and hold them accountable for that, not for what big brother is making them teach. Don't keep your children in a bubble, teach them the difference and they will grow no matter who is buying their crayons. When you stand before God, will he ask you if your child had crayola instead of fred's special, or how many boxes of crayola or fred's special you bought for the children the CHILDREN, HIS children. An open hand can both give and receive but a closed one can do neither.
Posted by WAtidefan (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 3:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
LoyalAmerican is correct. I know only a few teachers in Covington County. I would never post their names regardless of their views.
I will repeat part of an earlier post for those of you who are "word callers" i.e. you can say/think words when you read them but you can not comprehend. Parents need to know the curriculum. Parents need to visit classrooms. Parents need to talk with kids about what they are learning.
Next: Evolution is a hot button topic. Let’s go there for a bit. Science textbooks do not point out the problems with macroevolution. For example, a biology textbook used in a public school will contain information about the origin of life. Students will read all about a pre-biotic ocean. Because the entire earth is pre-biotic, all the chemicals in the ocean are inorganic. Then something happens. Lightening strikes, or as Darwin thought, sunlight falls on these inorganic chemicals, and what do you know? Life appears. Well, sort of. It may be just amino acids, but everyone knows that amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and proteins are the building blocks of life. And some how these amino acids link together to form these proteins and a living cell is formed. We have to called it a cell because of the Schleiden/Schwann/Virchow discoveries known as the cell theory. What I have just described is spontaneous generation. Spontaneous generation was disproved by Louis Pasteur in 1864. The science text is not going to point out to students that what has been written as the origin of life requires that the first living organism be created by SG. Spontaneous generation has already been discussed and kids know the whole Pasteur experiment. The really bright critical thinkers in the class will recognize the description of the origin of life as...spontaneous generation which the same textbook and the teacher have said is false. Few will challenge the book or the teacher. They may dismiss it and move on, but few will question.
Posted by Shamrock (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 5:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Loyal and WA: again thank you for making clear my intent.
My statements are factual overviews, for the sake brevity.
I've been acutely aware of the humanistic and antiAmerican slant used in public gov. schools for over 30 years! And I have been an advocate for parents to pay close attention to exactly what WA and Loyal have reiterated so well.
Knowledge must hold to truth, or it is of little use.
And values must incorporate virtues. It doesn't take very long before the children realize that there are two standards they have to go by to live in this world today - leave God and their beliefs at home, and accept humanistic values at school and the workplace. This has been the norm for far too long!
School should be an extension of the home where we can place trust in the teachers we are paying. Instead it teaches what the government wants them to know. I feel our children are being short changed.
Posted by WAtidefan (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 5:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Re: the school supplies uproar. If someone wants to be charitable and buy a box of crayons for every child in Alabama WalMart is open 7 days a week. If materials are provided by someone other that the parents of each child, the kids should know that someone has generously provided for them. Kids don't have to know the name of the generous person. But, the teacher should have the kids write thank you notes to each person who contributed. The greeting can be a generic one; again no names used. In my department we budget for some school supplies that are available to all students. We can still afford to do this. I also spend personal monies each year. The point isn't about who buys school supplies. For me it is more about the continuing sense of entitlement. Why should I pay for it/do it if someone else will? I have already written about folks who don't have money for school lunches, school supplies, clothes for kids but have no problem with paying for a cell phone, cable/TV, and various recreational activities. After all, they know without a doubt that no teacher will let a kid sit without necessary and even fun stuff even if we have to pay for ourselves. It is what teachers do.
Posted by Shamrock (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 6:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It gets quite expensive when they are in the upper grades, not mention clothing. Some have more than one child - one of my neighbors has 5 children in school. We try to help.
Posted by WAtidefan (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 6:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Shamrock: I'm not surprised. I am sure your neighbors appreciate your family and are thankful for your help. That is the difference. Helping people who truly need help and will in turn help others when they can. Paying it forward. America is the most generous nation on earth. Too bad many nations still hate us for what we have and what we believe.
Posted by BigDog (anonymous) on July 30, 2009 at 11:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
WAtidefan: You nailed it when you said teachers won't let students do without. What I could do with even a fractional part of the money I've spent on my students in the past 19 years!
We are blessed to live in a community that is willing to help those who are truly in need. There are places, such as the Christian Service Center, that are able to help with clothing and food. Many churches had school supply mission project collections this summer. Some churches have "clothes closet" ministries as well. Help is available to those who need it and ask.
The problem I have is with those people who abuse good intentioned help. From my point of view, it is shameful for parents to fund selfish wants (i.e. acrylic nails, the best hunting equipment, and tricked out vehicles), prior to basic family needs (food, shelter, clothing). It really fires me up for students to say that they don't have something - say a snack for instance - because their momma said I would give them one. The fact that I (and many other teachers) am not going to let a child do without a snack when everyone else has one - or school supplies, field trips, shoes, clothes, backpacks, etc. - is abused by parents much more than most people realize.
Oh, and there will be no teacher fee money this year - NONE. This means no money for copy supplies, maintainance, or the fee charged for the number of copies made. Better run on over to Wal-Mart and pick up a few extra packs of notebook paper while it is on sale for 50 cents!
Posted by WAtidefan (anonymous) on July 31, 2009 at 12:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BigDog: timely comment considering the article announcing the clothing ministry in the Andalusia area.
I, too, have had a good deal of experience with parents who have money for the extras but not the basics. But, we work with kids because we love it in spite of the belief of some that teachers are in it for the money.
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