Recently a 3.4% cut across the board in STATE AID has been passed. That means a cut in the 2008- 2009 school year. Because of this I just recieved an e-mail saying there is the possibility that we may cut all winter sports this year in order to meet the problems with the budget. Is any one else dealing with this at your schools?

ALL public schools are dealing, to some degree, with these cuts. The specific bill which was passed out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee is SB 23 amended; it is scheduled to be debated tomorrow; when the vote will be held and how many votes there will be is unknown. The House is also working on their own version, so if both are passed there will have to a conf. committee to work out differences, etc. and the Governor still has to sign a bill into law; no doubt the final product will not be veto-proof. This is far from being a done deal, though the time left to cut large amounts of money from the budget for this school year is quickly disappearing.

Here is what I know: There are going to be cuts, they are going to hurt and all signs are pointing to 2009-10 being an even worse funding year.

That said, cutting all winter sports sounds a little suspect; does that mean spring sports will go on as planned? ;-)

Greg Mann
Norton

My opinion is that every business, and darn sure every school district, has 3.4% of fat to cut. Start with administration. It seems like we hire an administrator before we'll hire a teacher. And we wonder why we have a hard time finding good teachers. P*ss poor pay for one thing!!!!!!
Our superintendent has the audacity to send out a letter to everyone telling them that they are "banning personal appliances in hte school" and "no longer providing bus service to field trips". He thinks he is going to sell us a bill of goods that he has the ship run so tight, that this is all we can cut. My blood pressure is going up.
I can assure you, no sports will be cut at our school. However, I wouldn't argue against cutting roundball!!

I believe the email in question did mention cutting spring sports as well as other things that were suggested.