Would you be willing to pay extra for electives?
Several electives may be dropped in the 2013-2014 school year after the Moline School Board voted on Monday, December 10th, 2012 to eliminate 12 full-time staff members, saving the district $600,000. The savings come from modifying the high school schedule. All students will take six courses and the seventh course will be dedicated to electives. But as we showed you on Wednesday, December 12th, 2012, many students take more than one elective, which means they'll have to make some tough choices next year.
The Moline School Board says there just aren't any other alternatives, so we decided to ask parents if they would be able to "foot the bill." $600,000 divided by the approximately 2,200 students at Moline High School is about $272 per person to keep electives. Would parents pay that much?
"If I could, I would, but I'm a single mom and I struggle to pay the bills that I have," says Connie Langan, who has a freshman daughter who takes Spanish, but is also interested in Art and Choir.
"I don't know where you find the money because everybody's struggling," says Dennis Hurley, who has a freshman grandson who takes French. "I'm retired. I'm on a fixed income."
However, both say those electives are very important in - and especially out - of the classroom.
"There are so many different jobs out there that there should be a wide variety of different things they should be able to participate in," says Connie.
"They need these foreign languages to get into colleges, so if they make it harder for the kids to get the foreign language, it's going to make it harder for them to get into college," says Dennis.
Most parents we talked to today say they're frustrated, but with the school district facing a $3 million deficit, they're not sure if there is a solution to this expensive problem.
Moline Superintendent, Dr. David Moyer, says he does not think these cuts will have a detrimental impact on students' success.
"We are committed to improving student achievement and we feel that while this was necessary that our students will be able to have a quality four year comprehensive experience and that we will continue to seek growth in our measure of student achievement," says Dr. Moyer.
He says more cuts will be needed to balance the budget and the public will have opportunities to give their input early in 2013.