Plum School Board Votes To Move Ahead With Proposed Budget Cuts
PLUM (KDKA) - The Plum School District is facing the same problem other districts are currently dealing with. To balance the budget, the district is laying off employees and cutting back on classes.
Programs and teaching positions are on their way to be eliminated by the 2013 school year. Parents, students, and alumni showed up in great numbers hoping to sway the school board, but ultimately they moved forward with the proposed cuts.
The Jr. ROTC members sat quietly in the audience. Their program is one slated to be cut as Plum School District tries to balance a budget shortfall.
The board voted to move forward with a list of cuts during Wednesday night's meeting, which brought out a lot of opposition. The Jr. ROTC isn't the only thing on the list.
Several teaching positions, computer classes, family and consumer sciences and the television productions program were all voted to be eliminated.
"I can see that the school board wants the graduates of plum to be well versed in reading, writing and math. But we need to look forward to the future. A future where the skills, experience and knowledge in the TV productions will future generations in their careers later in life," a person opposed to the cuts said.
Another person opposed to the cuts said, "There is absolutely no way that a student whose last computer class was in sixth grade can compete with another school district in which the administrators fully grasped the value of a sound computer education.".
The superintendent said the district will save over $1.5 million with the eliminations.
While it was clear not all were for the cuts, enough voted to move forward.
"It's going to be unfortunate for our children. They're the ones who are going to suffer. They're the ones who aren't going to have electives," Michelle Stepnick said.
There is one more public meeting scheduled June 6 before the board officially votes on the budget on June 25.
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