Budget cuts. Those two words have been the talk of the public schools in Texas for the past six months. And now that school has started again, students are really noticing the effects of these slashes to our school funds.

Or are they?

As they enjoy the new 20-inch Macs in the library, I’m not sure students are really feeling the alleged 40% cuts that took place.

There were budget cuts, right? I realize that we live in one of the more affluent areas in Texas, but still, shouldn’t this $27 billion shortfall in Texas’s budget have affected us at least a little?

Apparently not. If anything, the students at Lovejoy High School have enjoyed even more privileges than last year, especially in the technology areas. In addition to 20 brand new Mac computers to replace the ancient PC’s which were who knows how many years old, SchoolTown has made its debut in classrooms, and security cameras were added to every hallway.

But how is this possible? Did our district really handle the budget so skillfully that  we did not lose perks in the face of budget cuts, but actually gained some?

In a nutshell… yes.

Part of the impressive feat was due to the natural exaggeration of rumors. I don’t know if this occurs at all high schools or if it is just a thing here, but stories tend to be elaborated as they pass from student to student.

These “40%” cuts actually only amounted to about 10% for our district, and we were one of the heaviest districts slashed.

“In the state of Texas, they want all students to benefit equally,” High School Principal Gavan Goodrich said. “They put a little more pressure on schools with more income coming in from taxes than other school districts, so I’d say we’ve actually had some slightly bigger cuts than other districts, just because they looked at the school districts that have strong property values, and took more from them than from districts with a low property value.”

Although the possible budget effects were embellished just a little, they were definitely enough to scare some. Last year, for the month before school let out, many teachers were practically walking on eggshells, waiting in suspense to see if they would still have a job the next year.

“We have had some teachers resign and we just didn’t replace those teachers,” Goodrich said. “We’re about 5-7 teachers shorter than we were last year, so we have to be more economical about the use of our teachers and what they teach. It hasn’t really been that much of a cut, just a slight difference.”

The cuts took about 10% of the district’s overall budget. This may seem like a formidable number, (or maybe not, compared to the rumors of 40% cuts racing through the school last year) but it actually was managed quite nicely by the district.

“The way we budget money is, we have about 800 budget codes, and we just took 10% out of every one,” Goodrich said. “So instead of, say, $1500 for something, we now have 1350. Its not a big amount of money, and usually at the end of the year, once we’ve added everything up, we usually end up not spending about 6%, so I figure it really wont impact us that much.”

Although increasing class sizes has become an issue as some classes must bring in extra desks and chairs to support 30-35 students in a class, this is really the product of being spoiled by our district in previous years. Because our school is relatively small, we had the luxury of small classes. At Allen, class sizes sometimes exceed 35.

One argument that I have heard, and agreed with, is ‘Why are we buying new Macs and security cameras and the fancy new School Town when our class sizes are increasing and some teachers are being laid off?’

This question is the product of a misinformed student body, of which I was a part until I interviewed Mr. Goodrich. So I will attempt to enlighten all of you by sharing that the money for this new technology does not come from the same budget that funds personnel.

“We have money that is earmarked for building improvement and technology that is funded through bond money,” Goodrich said. “That was earmarked prior to the budget cuts. And the security cameras are just a part of operating the building and the money was already in the system and it was funded through our bond.”

The money for School Town was funded through an organization called the Foundation, which raises money through community efforts and gives the money to campus for technology purposes. This year, the high school chose to use this money to fund School Town.

Overall, the budget cuts have been handled as well as a 10% cutback of an entire district could be. The first and heaviest cuts came from the administration, slashing around a million dollars, whereas at school students have barely noticed the difference, aside from slightly larger classes.

“We didn’t want to cut anything that would impact the student experience,” Goodrich said. “I think everything is fairly well intact; I think you’ll get the fine arts, and athletics, and the things that students really love to do, you won’t really see any impact. But I would say that it will probably last this way for at least another year, so we’re just going to have to tighten our belts and make sure that everybody has what they need so that the experience doesn’t change.”