The Perspective » Opinions

The budget: a disaster in our midst

Sam Williams — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:52:01 +0000

A week ago I had an interview with the interim Principal Elizabeth Moll at University High School to discuss our current budget situation. To sum it up, it didn’t look good for the kids at UHS. For starters the UHS Budget Committee had to deal with balancing the budget this year, luckily there were no major teacher cuts. Unfortunately our teacher supply budget is slowly dwindling (ask your parents to bring in supplies kids!) and our school is starting to cut to bare bones where there isn’t very much else to cut. There is more unfortunate news, if the one-cent sales tax in Arizona isn’t passed TUSD could face cuts of up to $50 million in cuts and there are still even more cuts that could take place.

This is very bad news. As a member of the UHS Site Council and UHS Budget Committee, I can assure you that the following is a fact, there is nowhere left to cut. What this potentially means is that there are fewer AP offerings, fewer teachers, no budget for fine arts which translates into cutting fine arts if not eliminating it completely. Many aspects of our school will be demolished if the sales tax does not go through. I asked Ms. Moll in our interview about the prospects for UHS without a sales tax (which would bring in $1 billion a year into the education budget) and she admitted our prospects looked dim.

There is some good news however, if the 1-cent sales tax goes through our lives here at UHS will remain relatively unchanged. A little less money for supplies, larger freshman class sizes but in general, at least for upper classman, our school is remaining relatively the same. Also Ms. Moll who has been a great help this year as interim Principal in helping with our budget and in general running our school is going to apply for the position next year for permanent principal. If she is rehired this would mean stability and continuity through the next year when we might need it most.

Now to this reporter, with the current budget situation and the political climate in Arizona, the one cent sales tax seems very unlikely and my glass seems to be looking half empty a lot more as the May 18 special election draws near. What that might mean for UHS is: no fine arts, fewer AP offerings, humongous class sizes and decreased standards; in essence the complete breakdown of what makes UHS what it is. Parents and others can speculate all they want about how UHS is the jewel of TUSD and it won’t be touched, but what they don’t understand is that it already has and there is not much left. There is something that the reader sitting at the computer right now reading this article can do. There is something that every single person in Arizona can do. Any person, who cares at all about education and what it means for America’s future, can do this one thing. That one thing is tell your relatives, your friends, your acquaintances, your coworkers, even strangers, to vote for Proposition 100. If they don’t, our future goes down the toilet.

Samuel Williams

Sophomore reporter/editorial writer,

member of UHS Site Council, SAB, and Band

For questions please email samster712@yahoo.com

The Library Times

Laura Van Slyke — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 05:34:59 +0000

Students on the Rincon/University High School campus have been hard-pressed to ignore the recent budget cuts applied to our school library. Due to the nation-wide recession, TUSD has been curbing every department in an effort to rub two funding nickels together. The hacks made to our library’s budget have been drastic: six of the seven library staff were fired, the newspaper subscriptions went from six to one, the budget for book purchases went from $7 per student to nonexistent, and the researching database for the computers was cut entirely. Besides the monetary setbacks, among the most damaging revisions to our library this year has been the hour reductions, which render our primary place of resource virtually inaccessible. Last year the library was open to students beginning at 7:30 a.m. , continuing through the entire school day, and closing at 5 p.m. This year, the library opens at 8 a.m.., is shut off from lunchtime walk-ins, and closes at 3:15 p.m., a mere half-hour after the final bell. The library is no longer a place for students to study, for clubs or groups to meet, a focused environment stocked with updated resources and reference books, or a base of computer access for students to use as a safety net from the complexities of life. The maintenance of a functioning library is vital not only to uphold the integrity of our school, but to sustain its academic opportunity and provide an equalizing place of refuge for both University and Rincon High School students.

Most student concerns about the recent library cuts lie in the inability to work at lunchtime and after school. Mrs. Sepich, the school librarian since 2000, said restricting lunch hours “wasn’t to exclude the lunch crowd, it was to make it fair for teachers. Fourth period was always such a frustration for them, because they were never able to bring their classes in.” She also said that condensing the before/ after school hours is just the “best of all the bad alternatives.” Due to the legal issues related to the length of a teacher’s work day, if Mrs. Sepich came to school early for the before-school crowd, she would need to leave before the end of sixth period, and if she came late to expand the after school hours, she would curtail library access for all first periods. The library simply doesn’t have the staff to maintain the prior extended hours.

In addition to limiting the accessibility of the library, there have been other detrimental effects caused by the budget diminutions; the cuts have also affected the actual contents within the library. According to Mrs. Sepich, one huge problem is the inability to update the library collection to include recent fiction, periodicals, new science materials, and other current reference works. There is also no budget for technology. “Of our 21 computers, really about seven of them work. They all technically work, but not in any real sense. Seven work in a reasonable time for you to be able to come in and actually produce something,” she said.

What can students do to help? Tax credit donations are greatly appreciated, along with letters to our legislators voicing concern as to the scarcity of TUSD funding. Also, encourage your parents to vote for Proposition 100, to be proposed to voters on May 18th, which would increase the state sales tax by one cent for three years and pitch an estimated 950 million tax-generated dollars towards K-12 education, health and human services and public safety.

Aren’t we worked hard enough?

Sam Williams — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:57:12 +0000

We at UHS have a lot on our plates. We take harder, more grueling classes than many of our peers who attend other schools. We take countless numbers of AP exams, have one of the highest passing rates in the country for them and we are some of the hardest working students in America. On top of it all, many of us are involved in multiple clubs. Which brings me to the main point of this article: why do WE need another state graduation requirement?

The state has recently mandated for all high school students starting with the class of 2012 to have a half-credit of economics added to already numerous graduation requirements. While this reporter agrees that economics is a valuable subject and should be considered to be taken by high school students, he does not believe that students who have an already heavy course load should have to deal with another obscene graduation requirement which is not needed and should not be added. The state has in my opinion ALREADY inputted a course requirement that adds to the workload and at many middle schools has already been addressed and covered, namely Health. While Health may be considered useful information, it has already been taught during secondary school and so requiring high school credit is redundant. For UHS students who have only 7 hours in the school day for classes including the strict requirements of UHS as its own body, added course requirements only take away the little time students have for activities that are relatively leisurely namely electives like Drama, Dance and Band which have been proven instrumental in helping students achieve better grades in school. The best option is to let the school decide what the standards and requirements should be for the school for the reason that since the state has to have a general requirement they can not efficiently and thoroughly address the needs of specific schools and who better to give the decision making to than the school itself. If the state wants to do what is right for education it should pass the curriculum duties to the schools themselves. This column is always ready and willing for comments on topics being written. Feel free to leave one.

Sam Williams

Editorial Reporter

Proposition 401 and 402: TUSD’s grave just got deeper.

Sam Williams — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:45:23 +0000

On November 3, 2009 two very important ballot propositions, 401 and 402, that would have provided TUSD’s already decimated budget a much needed $9,000,000 override along with $190 dollars per student, were voted down. Many other school districts, however, passed their school budget overrides. Such results demonstrate how much the TUSD community is lacking in its dedication to education. New talks have opened up in the state legislature to cut $144 million dollars from the education budget. These cuts will be piled on top of the budget cuts that have already been imposed and will put a heavy burden on TUSD.

In June of the last school year, extensive cuts (around 14%) were made that negatively affected TUSD teachers and programs. As you might remember, teachers with under three years in TUSD were given a pink slip and were either asked back or had to find other jobs. I am afraid that these two failed propositions have only dug the grave deeper for TUSD. Proposition 401 (which in my opinion was the more important of the two bills) would have put money in the hands of the people who know how best to use it, the school Site Councils. The Site Councils are the ones who know the most important needs of their student bodies, more so than executives in the TUSD administrative office. That money could have supported the arts, sciences and many other very important projects that students have shown that they want.

Now with the failed override and the new budget cuts, I foresee tough times ahead of us for education. Education is very important and in my mind should be the number one thing on people’s minds. I am all for lowering taxes but when it comes to lower taxes or better education I can promise you that education is the better choice in the long run. Hopefully President Obama will do something about our failed override.

As a member of the UHS Site Council, having seen the last June budget cuts, I can only dread what cuts TUSD will propose and can only hope that TUSD can bite off a chunk of the $100 Billion education stimulus package. But hope should never be our last resort. We as students need to help inform our parents of the benefits of education, the risks of not supporting it, and help get involved in making a difference in our education. We are the future so we should make sure that it is a good one.

If you have any opinions on the matter please feel free to email me at samster712@yahoo.com I am always open to opinions and would love to hear yours.