Rosemont plans to cut even more electives after the very controversial decision to reduce students to one elective next year. The classes that are getting cut are, Dance/Drill/Cheer, Exploring Family and Consumer Sciences, Intro to Journalism (School Newspaper), Homework Lab (Teens 4 Success), Intervention Math, Intro to Applied Tech, Literacy for Success (English Intervention), and Pathways to College/Career, leading up to a grand total of eight classes. This is due to cut funding from GUSD. GUSD has been unable to handle the lack of “One time funding” that was given to them by the state during the pandemic. According to the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team, “School site and department managers reported having little to no input in the development of their annual budgets, particularly unrestricted general fund allocations. The district has not consistently expended restricted funds before unrestricted funds and has used one-time revenues to pay for ongoing expenditures, including salaries and benefits, without developing a board-approved plan to fund or eliminate those costs once the funding sources expired.”
The district can no longer handle many of the luxuries that modern Rosemont (and the greater GUSD area) students have. Why is this? Hypothetically, with one less period, shouldn’t there easily be enough money to maintain all these electives? Well, the answer to that is that it’s not just about paying their current dues, it’s also about saving for the future. Any school district in California must maintain a 3% reserve. In order to break even without dipping into our reserves, unfortunately, our district must cut $14 million dollars from our budget.
Not only will this have a great impact on students, but it will also have a significant impact on teachers as well. The main plan for cutting the budget to this low level is cutting many jobs from teachers and other GUSD employees. How many? Well, at least 158 workers from GUSD are set to be cut. They are also planning to switch from “unrestricted” funds to “restricted” funds. That means that schools will no longer have a choice in where their money goes.
Many are not pleased with Rosemont to cut classes, one 7th grader who wishes to be anonymous said this when asked what they thought of the cut classes, “I don’t think its fair that the kids who have to take Spanish 3-4 aren’t able to take another elective. Spanish is only something you do to get into college.” Teachers are not happy with this either, specifically Stephanie Stein, an ELD and journalism teacher. In an interview, she said, “I think it’s disappointing to the students as they have fewer choices and I am most disappointed by the journalism class being cut.” When asked why she was more disappointed with journalism, she replied, “I feel like it’s important for the community of the school for the newspaper to exist, and without the journalism class, the chances of continuing the paper are less likely.”
There is some small hope, however, for this district. According to the Glendale News Press, The District is now receiving “concentration grant funding.” GUSD hopes that this funding will at the very least help with the funding of electives help pay back debt. Also, it is predicted that most of the money should be restored around 2027. Unfortunately, these electives most likely are not going to be restored anytime soon, but at least we will have plenty of others to choose from.
