Ann Arbor School to face a budget cut of $ 14M from its athletics programme
Ann Arbor School district, facing financial crises due to the global recession, is also contemplating upon the steps that may help it save $14 million from its next year’s budget. The cuts are expected to be made from the allocation of its athletic programme.
There are no two opinions about the fact that, marred by the lingering economic recession and increasingly dwindling resources, schools are finding it difficult to finance their athletic programmes.
Some of the measures that have been proposed to the school suggest closing down three of the district’s alternative high schools, while others emphasize on making athletics self supportive and slashing down the administrative staff.
Nevertheless, despite talks about opting for austerity measures for the school districts, all such suggestions will remain ineffective until June 2012, the time when next year’s budget will be presented before the members.
Meanwhile, in anticipation of the steps that may become necessary for the district, different schools have been organizing forums to collect suggestions from the members to deal with the situation at hand.
Addressing to one such forum, which primarily dwelled on highlighting the sections to which budget cuts can be made, Patricia Green, the Superintendent of the school said, “It’s important to bring the community together to discuss what it values and what
it is we need to continue to focus on”.
Commenting on these remarks, Lisa Psarouthakis, one of the parents gathered in the meeting said that it was imperative for the management to be mindful of what it chooses to cut and what it decides to sustain.
She was of the view that there should be more options to consider and measures should be taken to sustain all these facilities, at least for pupils at middle schools, who will be left with no other choice except to change their schools.
Definitely, these were not the only options the participants of the meeting discussed. There were also suggestions about selling the building, while others regarded it as a structural deficit.
Although there have been calls to not to go for any cuts at all, but keeping in view the dismal financial state of the school district, it is imminent that a major cut will probably touch the nerve.
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