Budget Cuts

[Diane Johnson]

My son and I have recently been affected by the school systems budget cuts. He will be a senior this year and last year when we set up his classes we included two Dual Credit classes. The grants for those classes allow for one dual credit class to be taken each semester and $300.00 is applied toward each. We were informed that 48 classes had been cut and they had to redo his schedule to include both of his dual credit classes in the same semester. I assume this means that one of those classes will be covered by us. I so not think this is fair and it going to be quite difficult to come up with the extra money to pay for this class along with every thing else we have to buy during this senior year. I do not want my son to miss out on any opprotunities just because of the budget cuts but I think since it is not our fault they should make an exception to the grant rule

[granma2]

I am sorry for your son's issues, but everyone is going to miss out on opportunities when budgets are cut. I think Karen Carson (school board) told me in another post that the number of full-time teachers had not been cut despite the fact that KCS cut 53 teaching positions at the high schools and middle schools. I didn't understand how she figured that, but you're now seeing the results. Fewer teachers equals fewer class options. Even though no tenured teachers were actually "fired," not replacing teachers who have left for other places or retirements still leaves fewer teachers. I don't get it, but you might check with her. Perhaps they are putting more teachers at Fulton and Austin-East in the restructuring? I don't know. I do know that the school my grandchildren are zoned to (Farragut) lost the most teachers at 14. Can you imagine the trouble in the rescheduling there?

[Jamey Dobbs]

Can you explain dual credit?

[granma2]

Dual credit is when a high school student registers to take a class, for example, English, and gets credit for the high school class and a college class at the same time. Each student in dual credit has to be registered as a student at Pellissippi and pay tuition as if he were a regular Pelllissippi student. Then the class is taught by a high school teacher in conjunction with a Pellissippi teacher who comes to each high school during the scheduled class. It's a fabulous way for high school kids to gain college credit while still in high school. I believe that the Hope Scholarship pays for these classes now, but apparently Ms. Johnson and her son are running into some trouble with the amount of tuition credit her son can get per semester. I didn't know there was a limit, but my kids did dual credit long before there was a Hope Scholarship and I had to pay the tuition myself, so I don't know the current rules. It's a great program, and it will be a shame if her son doesn't get to stay in both classes. These are our best and brightest doing this. We need to accomodate them.