With the proposed cuts unveiled by North Shore School District, it is the opinion of this paper’s editorial board that the proposed cuts pose a legitimate pedagogical concern. That is to say that these cuts would leave a legitimate impact into our classrooms and schools. The very first proposed cut was the removal of sports from NSD middle schools, while this could save the district nearly $923,263, it would strip middle school students from the activities they love. They also proposed to cut elementary sports ($27,000) . To children sports can be a chance to socialize and interact, to form communities and get much needed exercise. Stripping a student of that would have a major impact on the morale of students.
One of the largest cuts proposed are the massive cuts to the Special Education department. Some of the proposed cuts would limit the amount of and type of support students can receive. Ranging from limitations to one specialist per child, to reducing the amount of time a special education student can spend outside of a general education classroom. This would undo years of progress which had to be fought for tooth and nail by advocates and former students. It removes much of the flexibility that made our Special Education program so robust. It would form a strict new format for the special education department that would severely impact the education of students who learn in non-traditional ways
By far the largest and most egregious cut is the reduction of the seven period day highschool students at Northshore have enjoyed. The seventh period has both given students the opportunity to meet graduation requirements if they had failed a previous class, and given others the opportunity to take new electives and explore new opportunities. By cutting down the schedule to seven periods many students would be interrupted in meeting their graduation requirements. While current and future freshmen will barely feel the change, the sophomores and juniors who were planning on taking advantage of the seventh period will be forced to either enroll in summer classes or sacrifice certain electives they had planned on taking. While the cut would save a projected 5.8 Million dollars the impact would has the potential to be catastrophic. Not only would students lose a beloved 7th Period and the flexibility it brings, teachers would lose their preparation period. The preparation period allowed teachers to do their work while getting paid for it, instead of prepping lessons from home they gained the ability to prep at work.
