Students and staff at Jersey Village High School were interviewed on the matter of school budget cuts. One of the Assistant Principals at JVHS, Mr. Abitua, informs that an AP had to be let go due to the budget cuts, he states, “Students had to be separated and broken down by their alpha group which means we end up having more students we have to take care of.” Mr. Abitua expects to see the effect canceling late transportation for students will have on their academic records, he says, “Students that need that service to stay after to get more of the curriculum, they’re not gonna get that, yeah, I think we might see some not improvements in their grades.”
If the APs are expecting a decrease in grades and overall academic success then something is clearly wrong; even an article by Walden University states that spending cuts means a lower academic achievement for students. The article says, “Cutting a school’s budget by just 10% has the same effect on test scores as replacing a school full of average teachers with all teachers in the bottom 10% of candidates.” The AP at JVHS was asked his stance on the matter and he says the budget cuts rely on taxes also that the staff at JVHS are doing their very best to run the school effectively, adapting to the cut in budget. Students were also asked their opinions on the budget cuts and they weren’t all that pleased by them.
Two freshman students, Leah Blanchard, and Mya Kissinger, were asked to speak about their experiences so far with the budget cuts; Leah Blanchard expressed her unhappiness with the cuts and tells about her bus route almost being cut due to them, she states, “Houston isnt the safest necessarily and my parents dont like me walking far.”
Mya Kissinger also has thoughts about the buses, though it’s about the cancellation of late buses, she thinks it’ll be difficult to stay after school just like many others at JVHS; the situation just gets more difficult for these students as Mya states, “I wanna say I heard like APs talking about how if you stay after without a guardian to pick you up you’ll get in trouble.”
An English teacher, Ms. Hon was asked her opinion on the statement Mya made and she had this to say, “That is a downside and that does affect our students who don’t have ways to get home from that and it cuts out things that they could be doing to help themselves academically,” not only did she bring up how the bus situation affected JVHS, but she talks about the dangers it brings to elementary school kids, “I dont think its the best thing, mostly for the elementary school kids. Especially like kinder through 3rd grade, they’re very young and shouldn’t be walking to school on their own.”
Still on the topic of buses, a sophomore, Matthias Kinney, says he’d be affected by the late buses as he states, “I havent had to stay after school yet, but I imagine if I stay after school I’d be stuck here till 6 til they kick me off the property.” Not only would he have trouble with the late buses, hes noticed as he states, a rapid increase in students; he tells about his opinions on the increase as he says, “It makes me feel sometimes distracted if i’m not in the front row,” to which I have noticed students have had different views on the matter; some such as Matthias see an increase, whereas others like Leah see a decrease though it could be caused by the difference of classes.
Mrs. Rich, a Geography teacher here at JVHS speaks about the problem of increasing students in the classroom; she tells about how the APs cant decrease the amount of students, for she states, “Fixing one problem creates three other problems,”
Finally, a junior was asked about the changes she, Maythe Gonzalez, had noticed; she brought up the topic of cutting staff as she stated, “I saw an AP cleaning the cafeteria,” she continued on with the topic even starting to bring up conversation about counselors being moved into one house where she says, “It’s a lot harder to access the counselors, like yeah they’re all in one house there’s many kids that need to access these counselors and they’re all occupied.” She also had touched on the financial state of students where they may not be able to afford outside help.
Mya and Leah were asked to speak about this topic and this is what they had to say. Leah Blanchard says she’d be personally affected by the decrease in counselors, and knows others that would as well; students, not only Leah are concerned about the wellbeing of classmates, as Mya Kissinger had a very important point as she says, “That would cause so much problems cause some kids aren’t close with their parents or dont have friends so there’s so one to talk to, but i’m sure the school has someone they can talk to. I know if they took that away kids would be stressed. There’s always gonna be someone that needs help, y’know?”
Based on all these student and staff accounts of the effect budget cuts are having on schools, Mrs. Rich hopes for a call to action from the people to hopefully improve these cuts not only for the students now, but for the future.
