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Dear Editor,
These are troubling times we live in. As an educator living in our community I recognize how hard the jobs of administrators are right now. Everywhere you look, there is talk about school budgets, tax caps, less money from the state. Money needs to be saved and programs need to be cut. They must decide what cuts have to be made that will have the least effect on the children in our district.
The preliminary budget shown to the Eastchester community plans to cut so many aspects of student services. A guidance counselor, a youth counselor, a student assistance counselor. Counselor, counselor and counselor.
Cutting student services can be seen as an easy way to save a lot of money. A kindergarten class with 30 students? No way! One less counselor? Good idea. Before a cut to student services happens in the Eastchester schools, I urge you all to look at the bigger picture.
A high school position cut has so many ramifications, including larger caseloads. Counseling services won't be delivered in a timely manner and college placement will not be as efficient. More time will be spent putting out fires that could have been completely prevented. Many students will be lost without their current counselor, having to forge a new relationship with a new one.
A middle school counselor position cut will lead to hundreds more students in the remaining counselors' caseloads. Students will need to connect with someone who doesn't know them at a crucial part of their adolescence.
An elementary cut will hurt hundreds and hundreds of students. One counselor will be left to work with double the amount of students. Is there any way one person can serve twice as many students as she has before? No worries, who needs a counselor anyway?
A guidance counselor cut at any level can potentially lead to a counselor change at other levels too. Although one position may be cut, a person at a different level may lose their job. Besides the consequences above, students will be under-served when a new relationship will have to be formed. Students may have a counselor who has never worked at their level before. Seemingly cutting at one level won’t affect the other grades, but in actuality it may.
The youth counselor and the student assistance counselor. A counselor in the middle school and a counselor in the high school. These are people who our children can go to when they are in need of support. Without these professionals many students will be left floundering. Again more time will be spent putting out fires.
We talk of test scores, small class sizes, academic success, college placement. Eastchester is one the best districts in the area. With less people to support our students outside of the classroom, how can we expect them to continue being successful in the classroom? I know cuts are necessary but how is this fair to all of the children of our community?
Lisa Rucker-Eastchester, NY
What is your opinion on the proposed budget for Eastchester Schools? Be sure and leave your comments below.
Bob Tichenor
8:48 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
This is an issue that has effected almost all school districts! The only way to avoid this is to strengthen our economy, we do not need more taxes, we need more taxpayers! More jobs equals more money for our causes! We need to start more drilling for natural gas and oil right here in our own country. This will creat jobs and cut the price of gasoline in half. That in itself is its own stimulus! Unfortunately we also need to get a grip on pension plans. We are quickly heading down the path of N.Y.C.. N.Y.Cs pensions cost the city almost as much as it does to pay it's current work staff. That just isn't good in the long term or short term! Jobs,jobs,jobs and smaller government are what we need!
Josh Semendoff
9:30 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Hey Bob, I do agree with you that if more people were back working that the tax revenues would certainly increase from sales tax down the line.
spark2
6:08 pm on Thursday, February 9, 2012
We all hope for a robust economy, but there is a long term issue here. If a town like Eastchester struggles to meet the cap to negative effect (cuts), it will make our schools and community look bad next to our neighbors. I will be the first to say Eastchester is not Scarsdale and it is not Bronxville, but the constant cuts will effect the quality of education and will reflect poorly on our community, as one that does not support education. Families buy in Eastchester because its a great place to live and raise families. If the schools falter, they will look elsewhere.
joe
1:49 pm on Saturday, February 18, 2012
The 2% tax cap is an admission that Albany has screwed up in the past. NYS loses 100,000 taxpayers every year. While other states' populations grow in leaps and bounds, NY loses people. Why? Taxes, onerous regulations, and the most powerful unions in the nation. Face it, if you were starting a company, would you start in NY? OK, you say, "Well I'm not going to start a company". Who do you think creates jobs?? The worst part about the 2% tax cap is that it LOOKS like Cuomo is doing everyone a favor, but in fact he is leaving all the cutting to the schoolboards. If he had any guts, he'd stand up to the very unions he's been in bed with his entire career, and end all these unfunded mandates we have to deal with at the school board meetings. If you want change, vote all the democrats out. Their entire modus operandi in this state is to suck up to the union bosses and buy votes.