No More Pencils, No More Books - District Takes Axe to Budget

Brendan Morse
News Editor

Under this proposal, Canandaigua City School could lose an estimated $1.7 million dollars this year; money that would otherwise go towards sports teams, the arts, and general supplies for the classroom.

Superintendent Don Raw first addressed the budget cuts on the school website on the twelfth of November. He outlined proposed measures in order to overcome such a significant financial depletion. “Our first move is to freeze all “non-essential” expenditures,” wrote Raw, “we will study our entire budget with an eye toward further savings.”

Despite this, staff members at the Academy have been left wondering how much damage their individual departments will endure due to the imposition of these budget cuts. Fortunately, Academy Principal Lynn Erdle addressed this issue in a past faculty meeting, citing specifics on how the budget depletion will impact life in and out of the classroom.

Erdle prefaced the meeting with a very simple, yet definitive statement: “if you had something catastrophic happen in your life, and it was a big impact on you financially, each and every one of us I believe would do the same thing; that is tighten our belts, and stop spending.”

According to Erdle, the school must undergo a complete examination of the current budget as a first preliminary step, accounting and justifying every dollar for classroom and extra-curricular use.

“Earlier today I had to go to a meeting with layers of budget cuts [where I thought about]- A, what would we do if we had to; B, what would we do if [we were forced to]; and C, what do we do in a [situation] that might seriously impact some things,” explains Erdle.

Currently however, Erdle has made it clear that until the school can calculate the exact state of the budget “all expenditures are on hold”.

Although this may not sound as serious as the immediate loss of 1.7 million dollars in state aid, the school board has already put in place strict limitations on activities throughout the school that are considered unnecessary.

Without a doubt many of the 1400 students enrolled at the Academy, if not a majority, take part in at least one sport throughout the course of the academic year.

According to District Athletic Director Jim Simmons; “There are two main pieces to this whole thing. What those two pieces are, are recommendations made by the league, in other words what all schools are going to do in terms of dealing with the financial situation in the state, and then there are what individual schools may be looking to do.”

In terms of this year, all sports teams will continue to play out their remaining schedules and as of now no significant changes are planned to take place that would drastically alter the state of the athletic department as a whole.

Next year, on the other hand, Simmons states that many changes will arise in order to cut back the number of non-essential expenditures. A significant part of this includes a proposed cut of the number of games a sports team plays in a regular season.

“On the table right now is a ten percent reduction in the total number of league contests at the high school level, with a twenty percent reduction or cut in the modified level – at minimum” says Simmons. This coincides with definite depletion of all scrimmages or practice games for next year, in hopes to reduce the gas expenses due to traveling for away games.

The school’s planned move to Monroe County has also brought about many questions concerning the exact effect the move will have on the budget. Despite the drastic amounts of speculation over this subject, Mr. Simmons assures that the transition will in no way create a greater expense on a whole for the district.

“We did a detailed study on the Monroe county issue, and we looked at a fall schedule that we just had versus a potential Monroe county [schedule]… what we found is that there is no significant increase in travel cost if we were to be there.”

When asked about the argument surrounding which, in his opinion, should be cut first - sports expenditures or unnecessary educational expenditures, Simmons was quick to insist that “any cuts or holds that we put on things – really it’s the responsible thing to do…and any kind of a hold that is put on our budget right now, is really about us and the district – everybody playing a role in saving dollars.”

Still Simmons clearly points out that “sports won’t be going anywhere… we’re going to take a measured approach, and any kind of hold or budget freeze is going to impact everybody in the district.”

This same attitude has similarly transferred over into the classroom, with academic cuts already well underway in all subject departments.

Expense accounts used by the staff to order new supplies have shut down. “I will approve essentials only,” says Erdle.

Under this ruling even the most basic classroom items such as copy paper-which the Academy spends twelve hundred dollars a week on- textbooks, pens and pencils must ultimately have approval by the administration before teachers can order the supplies for classroom use.

The presence of school sponsored trips, such as the well known Darien Lake lab which Academy Physics students participate in every year, is yet another noticeable mark that students will see a lack of. As prefaced by Mrs. Erdle; “even if your trip is extra curricular, or curricular – there is no trip.”

Other regularly planned events at the Academy – such as the spring fling/special Olympics, are currently placed under review, with their future remaining uncertain.

The administration has still approved the annual Junior Prom and Senior Ball for this year, along with the music department’s planned trip to Virginia Beach.
However, the administration has also specifically noted that without continued student fundraising, these too may be in question for next year.

Assuming that the full extent of Governor Paterson’s proposal to significantly cut school funding is felt, the Academy - and many schools throughout New York State, will no longer have the ability to afford the same academic luxuries that they once so easily could.

“This is going to make my living hell. I’m sorry to have to say that,” states Erdle, “but things are just not going to be quite as pretty this year.”

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See Also: Budget Cuts Should Start at the Top