Saving Schools does NOT equal Firing Teachers

One argument that consistently comes up is that "the money has to be cut somewhere" and if schools are not closed, then teachers have to be fired thereby increasing class sizes.

I would argue that firing more teachers is NOT saving any schools.

There are millions of dollars worth of cost-cutting ideas that do not involve cutting additional teachers on the Save District 279 web site. (Some of the ideas do cut teachers, but many, many of them do not.)

The Save District 279 proposal actually asks the School Board to use part of their reserves ($800,000) to keep the schools open and NOT fire anyone -- teacher, administrator, anyone.

By the way, several people in the administration through informal means have indicated that closing Weaver Lake (not necessarily the other schools) is NOT a budget issue at all. If this is truly the case, then keeping Weaver Lake open does not have anything to do with cutting teachers or any other budget item.