Budget Cuts Affect Academics

School begins this year with a minimum day on August 29th. The school year will be again 175 days the same as last year but less than the usual 180 days. Teachers have given up nine workdays to try to make up for the State of California's fiscal education cuts. Teachers will have no time to prepare for the beginning of school as two of their preparation days have been eliminated. All employees are taking an 1% paycut in addition to paycuts from last year. Classified employees also have a reducted work year.

As of this date students will still have Physical Education, Music, and Science. However a credentialed librarian, media specialist, will no longer be available for the students at any of New Haven's elementary schools. The librarians will be assigned to a classroom. This ends a thirty year tradition of librarians in all the elementary schools. High school assignment of a librarian will be 35% and middle school will be 25%. The rest of the time the librarian will be a classroom teacher. This comes at a time when the emphasis for students is critical literacy for which a qualified librarian is essential. This is a black time for New Haven students.