Blue Valley & Shawnee Mission School Districts seek feedback on upcoming cuts

Schools seek feedback on upcoming cuts: "Facing the possibility of deep funding cuts, the Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission school districts are hosting community forums this week to let patrons know what the future might hold.

Blue Valley faces possible cuts of $8 million to $9 million to deal with funding losses from last year and potential losses to come, Board President Steve Klika said.

“We want to begin the educational process for our families so they understand what we’ll be wrestling through,” he said.

Shawnee Mission could have to cut $10.7 million from its 2010-11 budget, Board Vice President Deb Zila said. This follows cuts made last year due to state funding losses and lower property values.

“We had to take more than $10 million out of our budget last year, so it is pretty devastating here,” Zila said. “We will encourage people to get a hold of their legislators and tell them they are concerned. We really cannot have any more cuts in education, and the financial formula has eventually got to get righted.”"

In my opinion to make keep the Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission School Districts has premier school districts, they need to make some drastic changes.

First, they need to get rid of their tenure system. The tenure system is a joke. Teachers know after they are tenured they don't have to work as hard. Reward teachers for their teaching abilities not for how long they have been teaching. I'm not picking on tenured teachers. There are some great ones who are actively improving their skills. I also don't think you grade teachers on how their pupils score because you may have a teacher who gets low performers in their classroom.

Second, due to budget cuts, the schools need to get rid of extracurricular sports. If kids want to participate, pony up the money. The school districts don't have the funds. I agree that sports are important, but not more important than the basics. For now, kids can join none school teams. My ideas don't cut varsity high school basketball and football.

Third, the school districts need get rid of the fluff. Teaching should be about the basics: English, Math, Reading & Science. Everything else while there are budget cuts gets cut.

I have other ideas that I will share in future blog post.

Let us know what you think or add to our blog by writing a comment.

Blog post written by the Dowell Taggart Team of RE/MAX Best Associates

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