What can parents do?

Be Informed.
As parents, we need to know what is going on with educational funding at the state level and what this means for our children, their classrooms, and student programs.

Be an advocate for students.
Parents throughout the district have been working together to organize to become a united and strong voice for our children. The Board is under considerable pressure from special interest groups—who is representing the students? We will! We can work together to remind the district that providing a quality education for our children is their top priority.

Attend Meetings.
Your presence at School Board meetings makes a difference. Parents can send a strong message to the School Board that they are there, first and foremost, to educate our children by sitting in on Board meetings and making the occasional brief statement. We need to remind them that it’s their job to make the students—our children—a priority.

Contact State and District Elected Officials.
Let your elected officials know your opinion. For the best results, write a letter. Let our state officials know that they should not make further cuts in education. Let our district officials know that their job is to make the children the priority when deciding on cuts. It makes a bolder statement when they receive hundreds, if not thousands, of letters from constituents. Sending an email and making a phone call is also effective. Contact information here.

PARENTS NEEDED!!! Parents are needed to speak at the budget board meeting December 15 at 5:00pm. Contact us if you wish to speak. We can coordinate parent speeches so we can cover more items in the short time allowed. Email us at voiceforourkids@gmail.com We need lots of speakers and parents in the audience. Don't forget to fill out a form and send it in by Monday, December 14.

Speaker Request Form Link

After attending many budget meetings so far, it is clear the district thinks next year's budget situation looks pretty dire, both at the state level and the district. The bottom line is our children and their teachers will lose. Look through the workshop agenda (link below) for all the items up for cuts. It's pretty much anything and everything. At the 11-17 board meeting they discussed the possibility of cuts of over $200 million. That is just about 20% of the budget. 84% of the budget is salaries, 16% the rest. Cutting 20% could eliminate all programs and reduce teachers' salaries, benefits and could require layoffs. The problem is the numbers keep changing. The one thing the board can do right now is to remember they are there to educate our children and they have to be the top priority when making these tough decisions.

What's on the list of potential budget solutions?

From going to half day kindergarten to cutting sports and music and performing arts, to once again, raising class sizes. They are also considering cutting teacher prep time. This is the time teachers take to do things like make copies, prepare lessons, etc. Our children are participating in important programs during this time like PE, music, science. If this is cut, your child will lose their program!

This is the single most important issue for us, as parents, to discuss and take action on right now. Please contact us if you would like to be matched up with other parents to get involved with strategies and please compile your own list of what you think is most important to keep. Also list items you are willing to compromise. Our children shouldn't have to compromise anything for their education, but the economy and state legislators who don't put education as a top priority have facilitated this crisis. You can start helping by going to the "Opinion" section and send emails to the state legislators.

We need to spread the word to parents. Please send them an email, letting them know about the upcoming cuts. We need to pressure the state to do the right thing and not make any further cuts in education.

The new numbers we are looking at for cuts next year? More than $200 million dollars!!!!

Here are the district's public meetings revised schedule.

Proposed budget targets

Additional cuts from Brace Report HERE. We must organize now to let our voices be heard!

If you would like to get involved or receive email alerts Contact us