The Great Unknown...

I realized just now that I have not written about the dilemma that is going on with work. Our school district is going to be 11 million dollars over budget in a few short years (this is a projected amount). This is not totally due to decisions made within the district, this deficit has been caused by House Bill 66 which was passed this winter by the Ohio Senate. In this bill, the school district loses much of the tax money that it once received from different industries. For those of you who don't know, Oregon is chuck full of industry (the main ones being oil refineries for BP and SunOil). Because of this loss we are facing a huge hole in our budget. Not to mention that the supreme court has deemed school funding in the state of Ohio as unconditional. Don't even get me started on that.

To fix this budgetary problem the school board has made some very unwise decisions (at least in my opinion). To begin with, they have known of this problem for a while and have dragged their feet when making decisions. This is a problem for us who may lose our jobs. We would just like to know what is going on. When the process began the board and administration promised that they would make cuts that would least affect the students' education. Well, last night they made decisions that proved that they were not actually thinking about what was best for the students within our district.

They are placing a levy for 5.9 mills on the ballet in November. This is problematic because that is a huge jump in taxes for the people in Oregon. Not to mention that school levies across the state have been failing for years. Also, it is going to be a hard sell because we are just completing the building or remodeling of many of our buildings. Then, of course, there is the football coach that we just hired for $50,000 a year (yes, high school football. He does not have a teaching or administration degree. But they are making up an administration position for him.)
Meanwhile, along with yesterday's announcement of millage, it was announced that they would be making $2 million dollars in cuts. These cuts would mainly be teaching positions throughout the district, but mainly at the middle school level.

This may also affect me and my job. According to the cuts, two academic positions at the high school will be cut. So now, I'm just waiting for any news that tells me if I am safe or not. I'm not going to worry about it. There isn't any reason to. Whatever happens is all in God's hands. I know he has a plan and I trust him!