Ánimo Pat Brown Charter High School will have a smaller budget next year than it has this year due to cuts made on California’s education budget. The question is whether APB will continue its policy of giving students as much opportunities as it can despite the cuts?  

Schools in the country receive money based on how many students are enrolled and how many go to school each day or attendance.

Ánimo Pat Brown has a high attendance rate. The rate at this moment is that 95% of students enrolled attend each month. This is a good rate however; the school has also lost some students. “The number of students decreases at APB every month” said Principal Josh Hartford.

To make up for the lack of funds for next year Ánimo Pat Brown will expand the incoming freshman class by ten students. This means ten more bodies will be expected to attend.

Hartford said that if we were not to change anything about the school the school would have $272,000 less.

The schools budget for next year will be $ 4.2 million dollars. All of the decisions to how the money will be spent will be decided by the School Advisory Council (SAC). There are many problems however concerning the School Advisory Council such as the lack of parents on the SAC.

“If we want decisions to be made more parents must be involved in the School Advisory Council.” Hartford said.

As of right now there are many things at stake for students of later generations. The way the budget is formalized is that teachers of different departments make up a list of certain things they need or want for next year. Then a budget is formulated depending on the availability of funds. This budget is formulated by Hartford and the SAC.

Teachers will receive some of what they asked for but, not everything.  Ánimo Pat Brown will still be giving the same education just without new things.

Journalism and Read 180 teachers say, “A lot of schools have to cut teachers and programs when state budget cuts happen. But, APB does an excellent job of managing its money because Mr. Hartford keeps teachers informed and, teachers are given an opportunity to participate in budget planning. APB will survive these budget cuts while other schools won’t.”

Although Ánimo Pat Brown will be teaching with insufficient funds, there will be no teacher layoffs. Ánimo Pat Brown will also continue to function with only one safety officer, one office manager, and two college counselors says Principal Josh Hartford.

There is the question if the Green Dot home office has or will take any of the cuts within itself. Hartford has said that yes, the Green Dot home office has taken some of the repression of the budget cuts.

“Green Dot home offices have frozen the salaries, or have not given any raises, to its employees. It also has fired people from within its departments.” Hartford said.

Another important cut Green Dot has made is the cutting of one of their High schools. Ánimo Ralph Bunche was cut due to problems with attendance.

APB’s school safety officer Daymond Johnson believes that our legislators are put through the very hard task of determining what should be cut from the states budget.

California has a debt of more than 20 billion dollars. One way, Johnson says to ensure that California schools and facilities getting the available funds are by filling out the United States Census.

Students have also done there part in participating in the budget process. Students on the SAC such as Junior Karla Hernandez and Senior Enrique Garcia have helped make sure our interests are also met.

Due to some cutting of the funds for APB’s staff retreat and certain conferences. $1548 was left over and students suggested that the money be used to buy new graphing calculators.

Junior Karla Hernandez when asked how she felt about the budget cuts said, “I am really sad about it. It takes a lot of money from schools, making it harder to give full educational opportunities. Because of the budget cuts we have less money to spend on field trips and materials making it hard on students and teachers.”

Hartford says that Animo Pat Brown will continue to give it students the best education possible. “We might just have to do it without a basketball hoop” Hartford says.