Budget cuts increase class sizes, prices; reduce class budgets

AP Calculus AB teacher Patricia Brook's classroom is packed with desks and over 40 students. This is just one of 107 classes with over 35 students. Cramped classrooms have become the norm around MC's campus. The recent budget cuts have caused a dramatic increase in the number of students in each class. MATT COFFELT/PHOTO EDITOR

The truth is that $10.7 million was lost from the district’s annual budget.

Although the cuts were not as severe as anticipated, Assistant Principal Ron Garrett is in charge of handling their main effect: growing class sizes.

“Essentially what happened in Poway [Unified School District] is that the cuts were less than originally announced,” Garrett said. “After people started complaining to Sacramento and writing letters, they backed off.”

After receiving the new budget, the district knew it would not have to let go everyone who received pink slips in the spring. Garrett explained that schools had to plan in advance for the fall semester.

“They gave pink slips out just in case, and they were hoping they wouldn’t have to fire [the teachers], but they gave them out to protect themselves,” he said.

Still, the school added 99 students from its previous 2215 and has a total of 84.4 teachers, up only .4 from last year. The .4 comes from part-time teachers.

A large majority of the money spent by the school goes to teachers’ salaries. Money has to be cut from other places in the budget, and a lot is taken out of each department.

The department heads, now more than ever, have to be careful about spending.

“We’ve had an incredibly reduced budget,” John Earnest of the Science Department said. “The money we’re going to be spending on consumable materials has been drastically reduced. Just across the board it is going to mean a decrease in lab experiences.”

Students are impacted by this as well, having buy their own supplies and print out more of their own papers.

AP Literature students experience this change on a daily basis.

“We have to print out most of what we read in class off of learningpoint,” senior Michael Rawls said. “This week I printed two packets which were 10-15 pages total.”

Students must also learn to cope with larger, louder, hotter classrooms.

While the average class size for the whole school is just over 32, there are 52 at or above 37 students, with two classes, both AP Calculus AB, at 41 students each, according to Garrett.

Gabi Zois, the only German 3-4 teacher, became distressed when she realized she had 44 students and had to advance six to the next year of German.

“If this is their second year, they should be in second year [German],” Zois said.

According to Zois, in enlarged classes, everyone suffers, not just those who had to be skipped a level. It often forces classes to become more rigid, sometimes expelling all fun, and leading to a miserable class where people will learn less.

On the other hand, small classes are forced to share a room with other classes. AP Studio Art, for example, splits theirs with two other art courses, which can make it more difficult for everyone involved.

“At the beginning of class, [Ms. Adams will] talk to each group and she’ll be there to help, but it’s pretty much just us on our own,” junior Michelle Clifford said.

Another casualty of the $10.7 million slice out of PUSD’s budget was the bus system. To the disgust of sophomore Michael Wilensky, bus prices without a $400 year-long pass increased from $2.50 to $5 per ride.

“The bus money is almost as if I’m paying a high school tuition,” he said.

True, if Wilensky did ride the bus at that price to and from school the whole year, it would run him $1,800. And also true, the enrollment fee for six classes a year including a bus ride at Miramar College is $1260 for California residents, $540 more than the school bus fees.

Still, high schools rarely have the luxury of an overly inflated budget.

“We’ve dealt with budget problems in the past and we’ll deal with them this time, but it’s not ideal,” Earnest said. “We’ll do the best we can with what we have.”

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