At Issue
Digging into the heart of a community.
Vanderbilt teachers work hard to help with students succeed in spite of serious budget reductions.
Listen
to Vanderbilt kindergarten
teacher Joanne Bowman discuss how
budget reductions have affected this tiny
northern Michigan community where she
has taught for 15 years:
“They weigh on everyone’s emotions. We’re a small district in a small town where schools serve as a focal point for the community’s identity. It’s a family atmosphere here, and when our schools are hurting, everyone in the community feels it.
“The cuts really hurt, but our community, school board, teachers, support staff and administration have collaborated to work out our problems together as best we can.”
And we all can empathize with the strain that these budget reductions must have on a 227-student district that now employs only 15 teachers:
Staff reduced. One elementary teacher, two secondary teachers, one special education teacher and one librarian eliminated.
One administrator position cut—the district superintendent also serves as school principal.
No music program at the secondary level.
No physical education classes for elementary students.
A reduced art program.
Some classes, such as Algebra II, offered only every other year.
Zero funding for school supplies.
Busing runs reduced from three to two.
The impact of these cuts can’t be minimized.
“We have teachers spending a thousand dollars out of their own pockets to supply classrooms, and our teachers are some of the lowest paid in our area,” Bowman said.
“We lost the library program. We now have a part-time aide there to check out books for kids. We’ve gone from three lunch hours to two.“With the reduced bus runs, buses are more crowded, we have more kids walking to school and more parents driving their kids to school.
“Class sizes in our elementary school have gone from 20 students to 25, and some of our high school classes have up to 40 students in them.”
Not all is doom and gloom in Vanderbilt schools. Enrollment increased by some 30 students this year and MEAP scores improved.
“We’re working hard for the students,” Bowman said. “They need us, and that keeps us going.”
The defeat of Proposal 5 disappointed her. “Somehow we’ve got to get more funding,” Bowman said. “Until we do, it’s our kids who are suffering.”