Cuts & consequences: The fallout from the district's budget cuts and the path forward

By Emmy McGill

Since 85 percent of the funding was used on staffing, the number of staff has been reduced district wide, causing teachers to teach more classes, with more students in each one. Dr. Snell explains, “I think we are the second largest employer in the region, and when you’re employing staff and you’re a non-profit…. you’re pretty much locked into whatever revenues are driving your budget, and for us, the biggest part is state.”

262 positions district-wide were cut, and Dr. Snell believes that, “our staff [deserve] the compensation they receive…. unfortunately, what we are funded from the state for that staffing hasn’t kept pace. And so the gap between the funding we receive and the cost of staff has increased pretty significantly since 2018-19.”

Regarding the larger class sizes, Julie Nygaard—River’s IB Diploma and Career-related Program Coordinator—wants to assure students that “River teachers are committed to their jobs and educating students. As teachers, we may see more work, more students and more papers to grade because of the budget cuts, but we are professionals and will continue to educate our students and support all of our River students.”

The second biggest cost deficit is for special needs assistance. Dr. Snell affirms special needs assistance is “required by law, both federally and state, and unfortunately we’ve had quite a gap in between what it actually costs to provide those services and the revenue we receive…. like last year, that was more than a 10 million dollar gap.”

The third factor which had contributed to the district’s budget cuts was the cost of insurance, gas, and utilities. However, these expenses in particular have gone up in all sectors, not just education. According to Dr. Snell, these three factors are the main sources of the budget deficit.

Examining student results from a time when funding for education was declining, it is clear that student success has subsequently decreased. During the years directly after the Great Recession of 2007-2009, educational funding dropped roughly seven percent nationwide. A study conducted by the Institute of Education Sciences observed student math and english test scores from 2002 to 2017 to compare student success in comparison to funding before and after this period. The study indicates that an average reduction of roughly four percent off student scores was the result, when a thousand dollar reduction per-student was applied. 

Dr. Snell thinks “the most frustrating part” of his job is that there are “never enough resources to go around to help everybody.”

Some teachers have voiced concern about the barriers in communication between teachers and administration in terms of the real numbers—these numbers being the student-to-teacher ratios districtwide. One teacher in particular believes that district decision makers are the farthest away from the ‘point of delivery,’ and that they often do not seek enough feedback from teachers on the necessity of different programs and funding.

On the other hand, students' and parents' frustrations are more aligned with the lack of transparency and late arrival of the news they do receive, as evidenced by the district's late announcement of reduced coverage of IB exam costs. Since students had already enrolled in their classes prior to the news, families claim to have been blindsided by the change.

Regarding the timeliness of the communication, Dr. Snell tells CR News that he thinks there is “always room to do things better.” He adds that “anytime you’re going to change something that happens, your communication plan is always really important…. when we look at what we were communicating in the spring, most of our focus was on staff.” 

Dr. Snell also elaborated upon why we are only just now feeling the impact of the budget cuts, explaining that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, “the federal government deployed resources called pandemic relief dollars…. and so we were able to use those funds to kind of hold our positions and not make reductions for a couple of years. Which is pretty significant, some of our neighboring districts weren’t able to do that.” 

Concerning rumors that the rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) could be ‘phased-out’ at River, Dr. Snell insisted that “it’s always important to have students enrolled in the classes, and wanting to take that as a pathway.” He also affirms that the board “told [him] about [how they did not] want to eliminate any programs. Now when you’re going to cut nine-to-ten percent it’s really hard to not impact programs.”

Nygaard fears that the change in coverage of exam fees could “[reduce] the number of IB exams each CP and Course candidate has registered for and will complete,” and that “some students will need to pay in excess of $700 for their exams.” The district assures families that coverage will still be available on an as-needed basis. In light of this, Dr. Snell says we have support for the future of our program.

Nygaard’s “hope is that the IB program will continue to grow in the coming years. The IB program has been a part of River over the past 27 years and is one of the best college-prep programs in the area.” 

Dr. Snell’s perspective on issues like the district’s budget cuts is to remain hopeful. “I think part of the criticism sometimes of my leadership is I have been too hopeful sometimes, people are like ‘don’t give me that anymore this is horrible.’ And it is, and I always want to acknowledge that and yet, ‘what do we do with it?’ is where I try to find energy and help people move forward.” 

Referring to the state legislature’s two year cycles, he feels “a lot of times it’s trying to get to the next biennium, to see if those revenues are going to come in to offset some of the challenges you have in your budget.”

Dr. Snell encourages students to take a stand and defend their education, and believes that throughout his leadership, he has “always recognized the power of hope…. and also the power of student voice.” Regarding the student protests earlier this year, he says he “was proud of our students [and] saw a lot of involvement and care.” 

Working to uphold our education and its support, Dr. Snell says he reaches out to candidates and to people that are currently holding office in order to create a platform for the district. He concludes that while “they hear from me all the time…. It's really important to hear from other voices in the community.” He encourages students and families to reach out as well—to advocate for their education and future.

Sources: 

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1345128#:~:text=The%20results%20of%20this%20study,scores%20in%20reading%20and%20math 

https://vansd.org/2024-25-budget-information/ 

https://www.educationnext.org/costs-cutting-school-spending-lessons-from-great-recession/