This opening week of classes in the Shoreline School District brings more than just the first-day jitters for students getting their first exposures to new teachers.
There are lots of changes at just about all levels for a district coping with serious budget-forced adjustments. Perhaps one of the more difficult issues for all concerned will be the notion that just because spending is being cut in some areas doesn’t mean that money won’t also be spent in other areas, including some new programs.
A prime example is the district’s laptop computer program. Students in middle and high schools are getting laptops, 3,500 of them, in an expansion of an existing program. At the same time, there will be 30-40 fewer teachers in the district and officials are struggling to address class-size problems in specific buildings. There will be such dichotomies as the district molds itself to fit financial and educational realities.
In such an atmosphere, it would be easy for positions to become polarized. Advocates of specific programs could attempt to build organizational walls to protect their bit of turf. At the same time, administrators might begin feeling that only they have the big picture in mind and could ignore the input and details that can lead to more workable solutions.
What the community can do is remember and remind that this school district is actually theirs, not the administrators’ or the teachers’. Community members must keep a watchful eye on the decisions being made in their names and raise a voice on what they want for their children.
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