Want to know just how bad the school budget situation is across the county?
Take a look at what is happening in Chester Upland.
More then 40 people turned out for a community meeting held by school officials at St. Luke’s Community Church to hear the grim news.
The district is looking at $20 million in budgets cuts, and is proposing some drastic moves.
How drastic? Like cutting 40 percent of its teachers. Like dropping the ax on as much as half of its support staff. Like seeing class sizes balloon from 21 to 35.
You can read John Kopp’s report on the meeting here.
This is the last thing the perennially struggling district needs.
In perhaps the ultimate understatement, Superintendent Joyce Wells pretty much admitted the obvious to the crowd.
“We will probably have to be very creative in how we educate our children,,” Wells told the crowd.
It should be noted that at this point all of these cuts are merely proposed. Much depends on the state budget eventually adopted by the state, and just how severe education cuts at that level are.
But it’s clear that such a dire fiscal outlook could devastate Chester Upland. The district is not alone in facing these kinds of cuts. But no district in the county starts out in the kind of situation Chester Upland does. Their fallout will be deeper, more devastating there than anywhere else in the county.
Can you say charter schools?
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