I expected school budget cuts a long time ago. Maybe it never occurred to people until schools started panicking about funding. Maybe I never knew there were budget cuts before. Maybe I'm totally incorrect. Anyhow, in my opinion the economic crisis should have struck the school boards faster. Firstly, I have totally no idea how the school board works, in terms of funding. If a school is given an amount of money at the start of the year, the budget cuts would not have affected them until the following year. Considering the economic crisis started around 2007, the school board is doing quite well! It took three years, from what I acknowledge, before we finally have a budget cut. Some call the economic crisis “The Great Recession.” I call the school board's budget cut “The Infamous Cut.” The school board's budget cut wasn't anything spectacularly unreasonable. What needs to be done is done. What is unnecessary is gone. There are many ways to cut budget efficiently without too much of a rattle in everyday school activities. Palmer's computer lab had a tremendous upgrade. All the computers are new, including the second computer lab where there used to be broken ancient Mac's. And we did all that from the donation of FutureShop. We never used a penny to get those computers. However, all the necessities must be acquired. For example, the funding towards helping the disabled or special needs must be satisfied. In addition, everyday spending can be reduced. Look at Mr. Wong, he uses cheap gray recycled paper for our homework. Imagine the amount of expensive bleached white thick paper we would throw away every year. Also, we can use a certain font that releases less ink as the printer prints. And there's a bonus, it's more environmentally friendly. To make a final remark, we are very fortunate to have a school system where we get funding and more importantly, free education. A small change can lead to a great saving!
-Gordon F.
