SYLVANIA, OHIO -- Greg Hall and Cassie Matthews are both students at Sylvania Northview High School. They’ve been campaigning to fellow students to stand up and tell school officials how the proposed $6 million in budget cuts will impact their education.
Michelle Tebary and her husband moved Greg and his two siblings to Sylvania for the school system. She figured they'd have access to the best teachers, academic courses and extra curricular activities. After looking at the list of where the cuts would likely be made, she’s wondering if she made the right choice. “Well my concern is that the kids aren't going to be getting the education I took them out here for,” Tebary.
Her son Hall says the courses that would be cut “help students get into better colleges,” and that these types of cuts take “opportunity away from students.”
The district is proposing cutting 23 full time teaching positions at the elementary level. That was impact math and reading intervention, general education classrooms, counseling services, Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) and special education.
Another 18 full time teaching positions could go at the junior high level. Those cuts will affect Career-Based Intervention, GATE, media center, counseling services, especial education and core academic/elective offerings.
The most drastic cuts are proposed at the high school level. Thirty-Eight full time teaching positions could go, impacting summer school, core academics and electives. “We’re not learning anything without them and its just ridiculous to think that we'd be losing them,” says Hall. The cuts will affect core academics, electives and lower the credits required for graduation.
The credits required for graduation would be reduced from 23 to 22. An additional 70 positions in extra curricular activities and athletics have also been proposed.
Hall and Matthews have been papering lockers with posters they’ve created. One reads, “when you take away what the students need, there won't be any students."
Matthews likes having the ability to pick and chose which classes suit her best. “When I go to school right now I have the opportunity to choose.” She says if the proposed cuts are made she will leave the district.
A meeting will be held Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 7 p.m. at the Sylvania Senior Center.
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