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Millages
and Cuts -- a Ask any NHS senior and they can tell you the exact amount of days, classes, hours, and minutes remaining before their final bell sounds at Novi High School. Ask any senior how much the Novi Community School District’s funding will be reduced next year, and they don’t know, because they don’t care. And that alone should tell you that this year’s graduating class is a lucky one. Take back that they got the bad end of the construction project. Take back that they were the first to engage in a mass retake of the MEAPs. Take it all back. They’re lucky. This is the second consecutive year that the State of Michigan has not increased funding to public schools. Even worse, they have actually decreased Novi’s funding for next year by $500,000, creating a budget crisis and a rush to fix it. As a fix for the problem, the Novi Community School District has drawn up two plans, both either halting or reducing the use of money for various things throughout the schools. The difference between the two plans is vast, depending on the passing of millage proposals, which will be voted on June 14th. According to the District, if all of the millages go as planned, only $832,109 in services will be cut next year. These reductions will include most notably: 1) a 25% overall cleaning reduction, 2) a freeze of new athletic uniforms, and 3) no more funded field trips. Sounds terrible enough, but keeping things in perspective, none of these changes have a tremendous effect on the function of the schools. 1) Students can handle a school that is 25% dirtier. Look at their rooms. 2) A freeze of new athletic uniforms shouldn’t be a big deal. Anyone should be surprised if we’re replacing these things before there ripped and torn in the first place. 3) So who would’ve thought the cancellation of District funded field trips would cause such a fuss? It’s front-page news in the school newspaper. The high school student body can attempt to defend field trips’ importance with claims of “educational experiences that can’t be replicated in a classroom.” But those trips to the zoo in elementary school cost money too. Novi should have no
problem dealing with the first reduction. It’s not until the passing of
the millage proposal fails that the schools are in serious trouble. If
the recreation millage fails, the school district plans to reduce costs
by $1,943,258. Simply put, the reductions are scary. They include the
elimination of Middle School after school athletics, and the reduction
of high school athletics; in other words, the format moves to
“pay-to-play” at the high school. But that’s not close to the worst of
it. 1) No bus runs will leave many students scrounging for a consistent ride to school. 2) If a student finds a class they like, they might have to wait years before they can take the next step, with the elimination of advanced placement classes. 3) After school clubs are popular with the diverse interest of the students. The elimination will leave students to fund their own clubs: an expensive option. 4) The elimination of the top two figures on the disciplinary chain could cause a problem or two. And last but never least, athletics are always a touchy subject with a city packed full of Wildcat fans. As if no new jerseys isn’t bad enough, pay-to-play forces athletes to pay upwards of hundreds of dollars per sport they play. (This may be new to Novi, but it’s fairly common in Michigan, and Novi’s free sports are actually a minority in the KVC.) Who knows what to think of the impending reductions within the Novi Community School District. One day Novi is home to a thriving school district with everything a parent and student could ask for, and the next it’s scrounging for every last dollar to stay out of debt. Just how much will be decided by the city on June 14, 2004. Whether the millage proposals fail or pass, Novi’s school district is going to change a lot next year, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that. (c) 2004 the Novi Information Network _________________________________ |
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