When schools lose funding, they lose opportunities. SRVUSD has lost $37.5 million in the past few years. The lack of funding affects every school and student in the district. Due to budget cuts, schools have to make the hard decision of letting go of classes and teachers since they don’t have the budget to fund them.

SRVUSD has decided to cut $24 million from its budget for the 2025-26 school year, as of January 14, 2025. This agreement is going to cause a lack of classes and teachers. At the moment, SRVUSD has a large range of classes, from core classes, like English, to elective courses, like music or art. But with the budget cuts, elective classes are going to be the first to go. Extra resources, for example, counselors and SAT/ACT testing, are going to slowly diminish, because we don’t have enough money to pay for them. And class sizes are going to get larger, with the lack of teachers. The SRVUSD board of education decided to limit the budget cuts toward elementary schools since they rely more on the teachers and their help. This means middle school and high school classes are going to feel the effects of the budget cut more. So how is SRVHS affected by this?

As a result of SRVUSD’s lack of funding, each school is going to get a smaller budget for the 2025-26 school year. Including SRVHS. Similar to every other school SRVHS is cutting teachers and classes. So in the 2025-26 school year, we are going to have less electives, resources, and teachers. This means less opportunities for students to grow and learn new things that they want to learn.

Classes being cut include AP classes, honors classes, and electives. Some core classes will be cut, but not as many. This is especially a problem for students who want to accelerate in school and take APs, honors, and electives, to be appealing to colleges, and to grow their knowledge. Students that have special requirements also will suffer from the budget cuts, since some counselors and specialty teachers are likely to be laid off as well.

To learn more about this issue I interviewed Celia Schebella, the president of SRVHS’s Academic Boosters program. The questions I asked included:

1. How do the budget cuts impact students at SRV?

A: The SRVUSD provides each school in the district with funds to operate the school. This means funds to pay for teachers & staff and all other school expenses. So if there are cuts in the SRVUSD budget, the total pool of money is smaller, therefore each school will receive less funds to operate.

2. What do SRVHS Academic Boosters do?

A: Each school in this district has an EDUCATION FOUNDATION. These foundations are non-profit organizations run by parent volunteers with the goal to raise funds to complement public funding provided by SRVUSD for the school to operate. Why does the school need more funds than that supplied by SRVUSD? Well, public funding is prioritized to pay for the ‘basic education needs in a school’. For example, at SRVH public funding is prioritized to fund core courses to graduate High School, ie. English, Math, Science & Social Studies. Honors, Advanced, AP, and Elective Courses are not core courses, because these are not required to graduate high school. So if the district doesn’t have the budget for non-core courses, these will not be offered at school. Here is where Education Foundations, like SRVHS Academic Boosters, come in. These organizations run fundraisers and collect funds often from parent donations. These funds will be used to pay for the non-core courses at the school to enhance the course choices for students.

3. How do SRVHS Academic Boosters help reduce the negative effects of the budget cuts?

A: The 2025-26 school year is particularly difficult for schools financially because SRVUSD had a huge budget cut. This means that each school has a smaller amount of money to operate, which can translate to less teachers & staff positions and ultimately less resources to serve students’ needs. SRVHS Academic Boosters will help reduce the negative effect of the budget cuts at SRVHS by funding more courses than prior years. Traditionally SRVHS Academic Boosters has funded 14 additional courses at SRVHS, in 2025-26 we are aiming to fund 18 additional courses. Each course costs $28,503 to run for the full school year. 

4. Why should people donate to SRVHS Academic Boosters?

A: Funding these 18 courses is only possible if ALL parents participate and make a tax-deductible donation on behalf of their students. Low participation means less Honors, Advanced, AP and Elective courses will be available to students due to lack of funding, limiting course choices. It is important to know that these 18 parent-funded courses are less than the number of courses cut due to the budget cuts. There will be less course choices in 2025-26 compared to 2024-25 even with the SRVHS Academic Boosters funded courses. That is why it is so important for parents to support SRVH students through donations to SRVHS Academic Boosters this year.

5. What can students do to minimize the impact of the budget cuts?

A: Ultimately the budget cuts mean there are fewer services available to students. It is important for students to understand that whatever they have at school is dependent on the SRVUSD public funding AND parent funding through SRVHS Academic Boosters at SRVHS. Students can do 2 things to help minimize the impact of the budget cuts:

1. Explain to their parents that donating to SRVHS Academic Boosters positively impacts their course choices of non-core subjects, their support is especially needed in 2025-26 which will have a smaller pool of courses available due to budget cuts.
2. Know that SRVHS is trying to provide as much as the service provided in prior years with less money, so students can be mindful of this and ensure they are not wasting resources. For example, take good care of your Chromebooks, and school property. And support teachers, who have to do more work with fewer resources, offer to organize things for teachers, and ensure that your coursework is up-to-date so teachers don’t have to chase you for it.

Now that we understand how the budget cuts impact our school, it is up to all of us to help maintain a great learning environment despite the financial challenges.

So, what can you do to help?

Students can do many things to help, for example, taking care of the resources they have and not losing/ breaking materials. Since schools have a limited budget, replacing broken resources will be difficult. Students can also keep their schools clean because due to the lack of janitors, schools will be cleaned less frequently. If possible, students or parents can donate to their school’s education foundation, like SRVHS’s Academic Boosters, to ensure that money is going towards their schools, classrooms, and education.